Bombay High Court Cuts Keenan Reuben Killer Sentence From Life to 20 Years

The Bombay High Court on Thursday reduced the sentence of Jitendra Rana, the key convict in the 2011 Keenan Reuben murder case, from life imprisonment to a fixed term of 20 years in jail without remission. The court upheld his murder conviction in the case, titled Jitendra Rana @ Chaina v. State, legal news outlets Bar and Bench and Law Trend reported.

A bench of Justices MS Karnik and Sandesh Patil also acquitted two other convicts of the murder charge, Bar and Bench reported. The verdict came on appeals filed by the convicts against a special court verdict. One of the convicts, Satish Nafeshing Dulgaj, died while the appeal was pending. A detailed copy of the court order is awaited, Bar and Bench reported.

The 2011 attack

The case goes back to the night of October 20, 2011, in Andheri, Mumbai, and it drew widespread outrage at the time. Keenan Santos, 24, Reuben Fernandez, 29, and five others were leaving a restaurant in Andheri at about 10:30 pm when the accused made lewd comments and inappropriately touched one of their female friends, Bar and Bench reported. Keenan confronted the men. They left, warning that they would return, and within 15 minutes they came back armed with knives stolen from a coconut shop. Keenan was stabbed several times in the stomach and died that night. Reuben was also attacked and died of his injuries on October 31, 2011.

From a life term to a fixed term

Four men were convicted of the murders. A special women court sentenced them in 2016 to life imprisonment for the remainder of their natural lives. Thursday ruling keeps Rana murder conviction in place but changes his punishment to a fixed 20 year term without remission, so the sentence now has a set end rather than running for the rest of his life. The two co-accused acquitted of the murder charge had also been convicted by the trial court in the same case. With the detailed order still awaited, the full reasoning of the bench has not yet been published.

What happens next

The appeals were filed by three of the convicts, and the bench delivered its verdict on those appeals on Thursday. The change for Rana is to the punishment, not to the finding of guilt: his murder conviction stands, and the reported term is a fixed 20 years without remission. For the two men acquitted of murder, the ruling removes the murder charge that had carried the life sentence imposed in 2016. The detailed order, when it is published, will set out the bench reasoning in full.