Madras High Court modifies stalker’s death sentence to life imprisonment

The Madras High Court on Thursday (November 27, 2025) confirmed the conviction of a stalker for pushing a woman college student to death from a running train in Chennai in 2022 but modified his death sentence to life imprisonment and ordered he would not be entitled for remission until he completes 20 years of incarceration.

A Division Bench comprising Justices N. Sathish Kumar and M. Jothiraman agreed with State Public Prosecutor (SPP) Hasan Mohamed Jinnah that the offence committed by the stalker D. Sathish was grave in nature and he had no right to take the life of a young woman who had rejected his love proposal.

At the same time, the Judges also concurred with senior counsel R. John Sathyan, representing the convict, that the punishment must be reformative and not solely retributive in nature and therefore, courts must adopt a balancing approach while determining the sentence.

“It is to be noted that the principle of reformation has gained importance in the criminal jurisprudence and is a significant factor while awarding sentence to the accused. The courts have to consider the possibility of reintegration of the accused offender into society particularly when the possibility of reformation of an accused is high considering the factors such as age, no previous criminal history and genuine remorse indicating a significant change of mind of the accused,” the Bench wrote.

Authoring the verdict, Justice Kumar also said: “A careful analysis of the case on hand would show that the case on hand would not fall within the category of ‘rarest of rare’ cases. When there is a possibility of reformation, the aspect of reformation must be given primacy unless it is clearly ruled out by producing sufficient materials.”