Bombay HC Upholds Life Sentence Of Sajjad Pathan For 2012 Murder Of Lawyer Pallavi Purkayastha

Last Updated:November 11, 2025, 11:42 IST

A division bench of Justices Ajey Gadkari and Neela Gokhale dismissed Pathan’s appeal against his conviction and life imprisonment awarded by a sessions court in 2014.

Bombay High Court (File photo)

The Bombay High Court on Monday upheld the life sentence of Sajjad Mugal Pathan, convicted of murdering lawyer Pallavi Purkayastha in 2012, ruling that the prosecution had proved its case “beyond all reasonable doubt based on legal, admissible, and cogent evidence."

A division bench of Justices Ajey Gadkari and Neela Gokhale dismissed Pathan’s appeal against his conviction and life imprisonment awarded by a sessions court in 2014. “The evidence on record, when assessed in its entirety, establishes the guilt of the appellant beyond all reasonable doubt. The observations of the trial court are compelling and do not warrant any interference," the bench observed.

The High Court also dismissed the Maharashtra government’s plea seeking the death penalty for Pathan, as well as a similar petition filed by Pallavi’s father, retired IAS officer Atanu Purkayastha.

While upholding the life sentence, the court clarified that Pathan will remain in prison for the rest of his natural life and will not be eligible for parole or furlough. “We deem this appropriate based on the conduct of the convict, who had earlier absconded and was returned to prison after a period of one and a half years from near the Pakistan border," the bench said.

On August 9, 2012, 25-year-old Pallavi Purkayastha was found dead with her throat slit at her 16th-floor apartment in Wadala, Mumbai. She worked as a legal advisor with Farhan Akhtar’s firm, Excel Entertainment Pvt Ltd, and lived with her partner, Avik Sengupta, who discovered her body on returning home from work.

Pathan, employed as a security guard in the same building, was arrested the following day at Mumbai Central railway station before boarding a train to Surat. Police said he intended to flee to Jammu and Kashmir, his hometown.

Investigations revealed that Pathan had deliberately disconnected the power supply to Pallavi’s flat to create an opportunity to enter her home. When she called technicians to restore electricity, he stole a set of keys, returned later that night, and attacked her when she resisted his advances.

In July 2014, the sessions court convicted Pathan of murder, molestation, and criminal trespass, sentencing him to life imprisonment. The court declined to award the death penalty, stating the crime did not fall within the “rarest of rare" category.

In February 2016, Pathan was granted parole from Nashik jail but failed to return after the stipulated period. He remained absconding for more than seven years before being rearrested in 2023 near the India-Pakistan border.

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