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Court reserves order on punishment
to Gulshan's killer

Sessions Judge M L Tahilyani reserved the order after hearing the arguments submitted by the prosecution and defence. Merchant was convicted on April 24.

Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam urged for death penalty. He cited Supreme Court judgments and argued that capital punishment would be the most appropriate sentence for the convict.

The prosecutor informed the court that there were several cases pending against him in various courts and forwarded a dossier on Merchant to the judge. However, the court did not go through it.

Senior defence counsel Majeed Memon referred to the apex court's ruling, which said death penalty should be awarded only in the rarest of the rare case.

He pleaded that this was the first conviction for Merchant and hence the court should be lenient towards him and give him an opportunity to reform. Besides, he was married and had two minor children to look after, Memon said.

PTI

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