Can a complainant file sentence enhancement plea, asks HC

The Bombay High Court today sought to know if a complainant can file petition seeking enhancement of the sentence imposed on the convicted accused.
A division bench of Justices N H Patil and V L Achliya was hearing a petition filed by Ramprasad Gupta, brother of Ramnarayan Gupta who was killed in a fake encounter in 2006.
A sessions court had in July last convicted 21 accused in the case. Of these, 13 were policemen, one of whom died recently. All of them were given life imprisonment. The sessions court had, however, acquitted police officer Pradeep Sharma due to lack of evidence.

Ramprasad Gupta had recently filed a review petition against the life sentence awarded to the convicted accused and sought it to be enhanced to death penalty.
The high court today asked Ramprasad if law permits a complainant to file such a review petition or does the right lie only with the state government.
Ramprasad told the court that a complainant can do so if the government was not inclined to seek enhancement of punishment.

He added that the government had delayed in filing appeal against Sharma's acquittal and had filed it two months after he filed an appeal against the acquittal.

The bench accepted Ramprasad's contentions and directed for all the petitions in the matter to be listed together next week.
On November 11, 2006, a police team picked up Ramnarayan Gupta on allegations of him being a member of the Chhota Rajan gang. He was later shot dead in suburban Versova by the police in a fake encounter.