Guwahati: The Gauhati High Court has commuted the death sentence awarded to Rintu Sarma, convicted in the 2021 murder of Moridhal College student Nandita Saikia in Assam's Dhemaji district, to life imprisonment while upholding his conviction.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Ashutosh Kumar and Justice Arun Dev Choudhury delivered the judgment, partly allowing Sarma's appeal by reducing the sentence imposed by the Dhemaji District and Sessions Court from death to life imprisonment.
The case stems from the brutal attack on Nandita Saikia on August 21, 2021, while she was returning home with her father and a friend. According to the prosecution, Sarma, a Grade-IV employee at Moridhal College, attacked the college student with a machete after she allegedly rejected his marriage proposal.
Nandita sustained critical injuries in the assault and was initially taken to a nearby hospital before being shifted to a medical facility in Dibrugarh for advanced treatment. She succumbed to her injuries five days later.
The trial court had convicted Sarma and sentenced him to death, holding that the offence fell within the "rarest of rare" category. Aggrieved by the verdict, Sarma moved the Gauhati High Court seeking commutation of his sentence.
After hearing the appeal, the High Court upheld the conviction but held that the case did not merit the death penalty. The Bench accordingly modified the sentence to life imprisonment.
With this ruling, the High Court has altered only the quantum of punishment. Rintu Sarma's conviction for the murder of Nandita Saikia remains unchanged.