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NCW moves SC against death sentence to woman

Ram Shri, the first woman to be sentenced to death in independent India, may have hope as the National Commission for Women today moved the Supreme Court against the order.

Commission chairperson Mohini Giri told the media that she had also written to President K R Narayanan four days ago, appealing for pardon to the 37-year-old woman convicted along with her father and brother for killing three members of her uncle's family.

Ram Shri is presently lodged in the Mathura jail. She is scheduled to be executed by hanging at 0430 hours on April 6.

NCW counsel Indira Jaisingh said the petition, likely to come up for hearing tomorrow, seeks a stay on the Allahabad high court order till the Commission or Ram Shri can file a full-fledged petition in the apex court.

''We will appeal to the Supreme Court to have a re-look at the entire question of capital punishment, especially when it comes to women,'' Jaisingh said.

According to the apex court, the death sentence is to be awarded only in the 'rarest of rare cases'. Ram Shri's case does not fall in that category, she said.

UNI

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