Bombay High Court upholds penalty of a man convicted in murdering his mother and later eating her organs

An outer view of Bombay High Court in Mumbai
| Photo Credit: Today News 24

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday (October 1, 2024) upheld the death penalty awarded to a man from Maharashtra’s Kolhapur for brutally murdering his 63-year-old mother and later eating her body parts and organs in 2017.  

“We confirm the sentence of death. The convict is informed about his right to take an appeal before the Supreme Court in 30 days. The convict not only murdered his mother but also removed her body parts and he was about to cook her heart and was about to eat it. .

This is a case of cannibalism, and we found it worth it to be of the rarest of rare category wherein the appellant not only killed his mother but removed her organs like brain, heart, liver, ribs, etc., and was about to cook the same on a stove.

There is no scope for his reformation as his tendency is cannibalism. It is a barbaric grotesque murder of the mother. Thus, we have upheld your death sentence, as awarded to you by the sessions court,” the Division Bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Prithviraj Chavan observed.  

The judgement was pronounced in the open court while the appellant Sunil Rama Kuchkoravi was produced through video conferencing facility from Yerwada Central Jail in Pune.

Kuchkoravi challenged his conviction by the State government seeking confirmation of the death penalty awarded to him. According to the prosecution, he killed his mother Yallama Rama Kuchkoravi on the afternoon of August 28, 2017, in Makadwala Vasahat in Kolhapur city.

After killing her, he cut her body, extracted her organs, fried some of her organs in a pan and ate. After a neighbour child saw him drenched in blood, the matter spread in the neighbourhood and the police arrested him.

In July 2021, Kolhapur Sessions Court convicted him and sentenced him hanged to death for such a heinous crime. The Sessions Court in its judgement said the crime shook the social conscience of society. The court also noted that there was no repentance or remorse in Kuchkoravi’s behaviour after committing such a crime.