All eyes are on the 11th fast track court which is scheduled to pronounce the quantum of sentence on the long-awaited Pratibha Srikanth Murthy murder case on Friday.
With the accused cab driver S Shivakumar convicted, the verdict seems to have boiled down to two options — life imprisonment and death sentence.
Special public prosecutor VK Patil was hopeful of a death penalty to the convict. "There will be no arguments, but the court has to decide. It should be a death. If the defence is not satisfied they might go to the high court. We are ready for either verdict as it is rarest of the rare case," he said.
Defence advocate S Shankarappa had a different view. "It is not a rare case which attracts a death penalty. We will look at the verdict and then decide whether to appeal in the higher court or not," said Shankarappa.
Justice BV Gudli, the presiding officer of the 11th fast track court, would pronounce the quantum of sentence.
The convict's family, which sold close to 4 acres of their property to fight the case, is hoping for a lenient punishment to Shivakumar. "Everything is over now and all that we are hoping is that the punishment is not a death sentence. We have left everything to the almighty to decide. However, we will fight the case even if we have to sell our remaining property," said Nagesh, Shivakumar's father-in-law.
Nagesh brushed aside media reports that Shivakumar's wife Suma is married again. "We will file a defamation case soon. Suma is staying with me and her son is studying in class 1 in a reputed English Medium School. We are defending Shivakumar because we know that he is innocent. Just because we hail from a poor family, he has been trapped by those who have strong political support," said Nagesh.
Suma, who is eagerly waiting for the quantum of punishment to be pronounced, is depressed. "My husband has been framed by people with political backing. He was also tortured by the police to make a confession," she said.
Sources in Parappana Agrahara said that Shivakumar has been decent in his behaviour. "Since his conviction, he has been quite depressed," said the source. Shivakumar is hoping for a life sentence, said the sources.
