Karnataka High Court Sentences Retired KSRTC Driver to Life Imprisonment for Killing Six in Petrol Fire
The Karnataka High Court has sentenced a 63-year-old retired Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) driver to life imprisonment without remission for killing six members of a family by setting their house on fire after allegedly pouring petrol through a window.
The case relates to a horrifying incident that took place at around 3 a.m. on April 12, 2013, when a doctor and seven members of his family were sleeping inside their house in Mysuru. According to the prosecution, Abdul Sharief, also known as Ameer Jan, poured petrol into the house through a window and set it on fire with a matchstick before fleeing. Six people died in the blaze.
The prosecution alleged that Sharief had developed resentment against the doctor over money allegedly owed for medical treatment. A further allegation was that Sharief had previously asked the doctor to provide him with slow poison to kill his first wife. The doctor’s refusal was said to have further aggravated the accused’s resentment.
The case had initially ended in an acquittal in 2018, when the trial court found insufficient grounds to convict Sharief. The State subsequently challenged that decision before the Karnataka High Court.
A Division Bench comprising Justice H.P. Sandesh and Justice B. Pramod found that the trial court had seriously erred in its appreciation of the evidence. The High Court said that material evidence had been misread, minor discrepancies had been given excessive importance and crucial forensic evidence had been overlooked.
The High Court also criticised the trial court’s handling of the prosecution evidence. It observed that the trial court should not have remained a “mute spectator” when a key witness had not been examined by the public prosecutor, particularly in a case involving the deaths of six people.
Among the important pieces of evidence considered by the High Court was the testimony of the doctor’s daughter, who survived the fire despite suffering 34% burn injuries. She identified Sharief as the person responsible for the attack.
The Court also considered the accused’s unexplained burn injuries and a Forensic Science Laboratory report indicating the presence of petroleum residues on articles seized during the investigation. The Bench concluded that the combined evidence established Sharief’s involvement in the crime.
The High Court consequently overturned the trial court’s acquittal and convicted Sharief in connection with the deaths.
The State sought the death penalty, arguing that the attack was premeditated, that the victims were particularly vulnerable because they were asleep and that six lives had been lost in the deliberately started fire.
The High Court, however, stopped short of imposing capital punishment. While describing the crime as brutal, the Bench took into consideration mitigating circumstances, particularly Sharief’s age and the passage of approximately 13 years since the crime.
Sharief is now 63. He was around 50 years old when the offence was committed in 2013. The Court considered the substantial lapse of time as one factor while deciding the appropriate punishment.
The Court ultimately ordered life imprisonment for each of the six murders, without the possibility of remission. Sharief was also directed to pay a fine of ₹25,000 for each murder count.
In addition, he was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for attempt to murder under Section 307 of the IPC and three years’ imprisonment under Section 436 of the IPC for mischief by fire. The sentences were directed to run concurrently.
The judgment is significant because the High Court not only revisited an acquittal more than a decade after the incident but also highlighted the responsibility of trial courts to properly assess forensic and eyewitness evidence in serious criminal cases.
The ruling demonstrates that an earlier acquittal can be overturned where an appellate court finds that the evidence was improperly assessed and that the resulting decision caused a miscarriage of justice.
At the same time, the decision to impose life imprisonment rather than the death penalty reflects the Court’s sentencing approach. Despite the scale of the tragedy and the deliberate nature of the attack, the Bench considered the convict’s present age and the long passage of time before determining the punishment.
The case, State of Karnataka v. Abdul Sharief @ Ameer Jan, therefore ends a prolonged legal battle over the 2013 petrol-fire attack, with the Karnataka High Court holding the former KSRTC driver responsible for the deaths of six people and directing that he spend the remainder of his sentence in prison without remission.
