The Supreme Court of India has temporarily stayed the execution of Sunil Rama Kuchkoravi, who was convicted for the brutal murder and cannibalism of his mother in Kolhapur, Maharashtra. The Court issued this stay on December 11, 2023, after Kuchkoravi challenged the death sentence handed down by the trial court and upheld by the Bombay High Court.
Kuchkoravi, a resident of Kolhapur in Maharashtra, was convicted for the 2017 murder of his 63-year-old mother, Yallava Kuchkoravi. In addition to the murder, Kuchkoravi was found to have dismembered his mother's body and attempted to cook parts of her remains. Following his conviction, the trial court sentenced him to death in 2021, a decision that was upheld by the Bombay High Court in October 2023.
The Bombay High Court, in upholding the death sentence, had noted that the crime fell under the “rarest of rare” category for capital punishment, emphasising that “The case falls under the rarest of rare category. The convict not only murdered his mother, but he also removed her body parts – brain, heart, liver, kidney, intestine and was cooking them on a pan.” The High Court also found that Kuchkoravi’s tendencies toward cannibalism made the prospect of his reformation unlikely, stating that there was “no chance of reformation of the convict as he has tendencies of cannibalism.”
Following this, Kuchkoravi appealed to the Supreme Court, seeking a review of his death sentence. On December 11, 2023, the three-judge bench of Justice Surya Kant, Justice Pankaj Mithal, and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan issued a notice on the appeal and ordered that “The records of the trial court as well as the High Court, along with translated version and soft copies of the same be requisitioned.” The Court further stayed the execution of the death sentence and scheduled the next hearing for April 14, 2025.
The crime was discovered in August 2017 when an eight-year-old girl found the body of Yallava in a pool of blood. Kuchkoravi was found nearby, with bloodstains on his clothes. The brutal nature of the crime shocked the local community, and Kuchkoravi was arrested shortly after the discovery. Kuchkoravi’s violent tendencies and history of abuse towards his mother were also noted during the investigation, with reports indicating that he had often demanded money from her to buy alcohol.
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