Sentenced to death for killing six members of the Rathi family in Pune and their help in 1994, Narayan Chetanram Chaudhary thought his fate was sealed. But somewhere in the anda cell, with its white walls that offered a peek of the sky, his fortunes changed he was no longer a dead man
On March 27, after over 28 years in prison – 25 of those on death row – the Supreme Court ordered 42-year-old Narayan Chetanram Chaudhary to “be set free forthwith” while ruling that he was a juvenile when he was sentenced to death in 1998.
When he was 12 years old, Niranaram, along with two others, was arrested for the murder of five persons, including a pregnant woman and two children. He was, however, tried as a 20-year-old and awarded the death sentence.