Muzaffarnagar Judge Sentences 22 to Death in 10 Cases, 100 Cases Transferred

A government lawyer told PTI that cases involving offences carrying the death penalty or life imprisonment were transferred from the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar to the court of District and Sessions Judge Virendra Kumar Singh.

Pramod Tyagi, president of the District Bar Association, said lawyers and litigants had been apprehensive that the court might award the death penalty.

Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar is known for his strict verdicts. In 2022, he was in the news for passing an order for a videography survey of the Gyanvapi complex in Varanasi.

The 46-year-old judge, who is from Lucknow, began his judicial career in 2009 as an Additional Civil Judge in Azamgarh. In May 2015, he was promoted as a Civil Judge in Sultanpur and around five months later as a Judicial Magistrate.

Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar holds BCom and LLM degrees. He has been serving as Additional District and Sessions Judge in Muzaffarnagar since November 2025.

On August 13, he sentenced four people to death in a 12-year-old murder case. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1.70 lakh on Ramveer, Rajeev, Rahul and Harendra Kumar, who were convicted of murdering Pawan Kumar.

The accused had entered Kumar’s house in Shamli district on July 14, 2014, and allegedly opened fire during an attack arising from an old enmity. Kumar was killed in the firing, while his brother Ashok Kumar was shot and injured.

On August 12, Judge Diwakar sentenced Shahnavaz to death for kidnapping and murdering a timber trader for ransom nearly 27 years ago. Shahnavaz was convicted of murdering Salim in 1999. Salim had been kidnapped for a ransom of Rs 5 lakh and was later killed by having his throat slit in a forest in Chhapar on December 9, 1999.

On July 17, the judge sentenced four people to death for murdering farmer Raj Singh during an attempted robbery in Shamli district in 2011. Raj Singh was travelling on a motorcycle with his friend Bijendra to his sister’s house on August 20, 2011, when unidentified attackers stopped them and attempted to rob them. When Raj Singh resisted, he was shot dead, while Bijendra was tied up and thrown into a nearby sugarcane field.

On July 6, Judge Diwakar sentenced a former village head and his associate to death in a 2010 murder case, observing that the case fell into the “rarest of rare” category. Rajbir Singh, 60, was shot dead on August 24, 2010, amid rivalry over the panchayat elections. Former village head Pramod and his associate Sahdev were later arrested for the murder.

On July 2, Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar convicted a man of murdering a Home Guard while he was on duty and sentenced him to death. The judge said the case fell into the “rarest of rare” category and that the murder had been committed under circumstances warranting the maximum punishment.

The incident occurred on June 4, 2020, when Home Guard Ratiram was on duty. He intervened to save the accused’s mother when the accused allegedly attacked her. In anger, the accused, Deepak, stabbed Ratiram to death.

On June 20, the judge sentenced Gajendra and Ramkiran to death in connection with the murder of Rajendra Saini, observing that the case fell into the “rarest of rare” category.

On May 30, his fast-track court sentenced a 50-year-old man to death for murdering a woman and her six-year-old son in a case that was nearly 15 years old. The judge said the case fell into the “rarest of rare” category and warranted the death penalty.

The victims, Rajesh Devi, 30, and her son Himanshu, were killed in Muzaffarnagar district on November 7, 2011. According to the prosecution, Rahees took Rajesh Devi and the child to a nearby sugarcane field and, following an argument, repeatedly struck them with bricks, killing them. Their bodies were recovered on November 13.

On April 28, the judge sentenced a woman and her three sons to death in a 2019 murder case.

On April 6, the Muzaffarnagar fast-track court sentenced three people to death in the 2019 kidnapping and murder of a lawyer. According to the prosecution, lawyer Mohammad Sameer was kidnapped on October 15, 2019, over a financial dispute involving Rs 45 lakh and was later murdered.

During the investigation, police found that the accused had disposed of the body at another location with the help of one of the accused. The body was later recovered from a forest in Sikri village.

The series of death sentences over the past four months has led to the transfer of nearly 100 pending murder cases from Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar’s court to the District and Sessions Judge’s court, according to officials cited by PTI.