More than 13 years after the brutal murder of lawyer Pallavi Purkayastha rocked the metropolis, the Bombay High Court on Monday upheld the conviction and life sentence handed to a security guard, noting the prosecution has established his guilt beyond doubt in the case. The court dismissed pleas seeking the death penalty for the convict, Sajjad Mugal Pathan, who will remain in jail for the remainder of his natural life.

The evidence, when assessed in its entirety, establishes the guilt of the convict beyond all reasonable doubt and the prosecution has established its case beyond all reasonable doubts, the HC noted. A bench of Justice A S Gadkari and Justice Neela Gokhale dismissed the appeals filed by the Maharashtra government and Purkayastha’s father seeking enhancement of the life sentence (to death penalty) imposed on the convict by the trial court.