"Post conviction, while in jail, he made a murderous attack on jail inmate. These instances persuades us to hold that he is beyond improvement and there are no chances of reformation," the Court said.
The victims appealed to the Court that they held no enmity towards the accused and were solely seeking justice. They further requested the Court not to impose the death penalty on the convicts.
The division bench of Justice T Amarnath Goud and Justice Biswajit Palit also ordered that convict Pradip Debroy @ Kutti be kept in solitary confinement.
The criminal history of a convict by itself is not a ground to award the death penalty, observed the Supreme Court while commuting the sentence of a murder convict from the death penalty to life imprisonment.
The Supreme Court took strong exception to the conduct of a Bihar trial court, the police, the public prosecutor, and the Patna High Court in a case concerning a death-row prisoner convicted for rape and murder.