In four months, UP judge hands down 22 death sentences in 10 cases: Who is Ravi Kumar Diwakar?

UP Fast-Track Judge Delivers 22 Death Verdicts Across 10 Cases in Four Months

Theindiapostdaily.com – Between April 6 and August 13, 2026, Additional District and Sessions Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar, presiding over a fast-track court in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, pronounced death sentences on a total of 22 individuals spread across ten separate trials. The matters before the bench ranged from the abduction and killing of a practicing lawyer to the shooting of a home guard during duty, highway robbery ending in murder, and other homicide proceedings.

How Diwakar First Captured National Attention

Long before the Muzaffarnagar verdicts made headlines, Diwakar had already drawn widespread scrutiny. In May 2022, while serving as civil judge (senior division) in Varanasi, he directed a court-supervised videographic survey of the Gyanvapi mosque complex. The order came in a petition filed by five Hindu women who sought worship rights at the Shringar Gauri site within the complex. That ruling placed his name firmly in the national conversation.

Following his Varanasi tenure, Diwakar was posted to Bareilly and later to Chitrakoot before assuming charge in Muzaffarnagar on November 29, 2025.

The Muzaffarnagar Death Sentences, Case by Case

The first of the recent capital verdicts arrived on April 6. Three accused were sentenced to death for the 2019 kidnapping and murder of lawyer Mohammad Sameer. Prosecutors contended that Sameer was abducted and killed over a financial dispute worth ₹45 lakh.

On April 28, a woman and her three sons received death sentences in connection with a 2019 homicide.

May 30 brought another verdict: a 50-year-old man was sentenced to death for killing a woman and her six-year-old son in a case stretching back roughly 15 years. The bench classified the matter within the “rarest of rare” category.

Two individuals were handed death sentences on June 20 for the murder of Rajendra Saini.

On July 2, Diwakar imposed the maximum penalty on a man convicted of killing home guard Ratiram while the latter was on duty in 2020. The court reasoned that the circumstances warranted the harshest punishment and placed the case squarely in the “rarest of rare” bracket.

July 6 saw a former village head and his associate sentenced to death over the 2010 murder of Rajbir Singh, another matter the court deemed “rarest of rare.”

Four men received death sentences on July 17 for killing a farmer during an attempted robbery in Shamli district back in 2011.

On August 12, Diwakar sentenced Shahnawaz to death for abducting and murdering wood trader Saleem in 1999 to extract a ransom. The convict was additionally ordered to pay a fine of ₹1.10 lakh.

The following day, August 13, four men — Ramvir, Rajiv, Rahul, and Harender Kumar — were sentenced to death in a 2014 homicide. Each was also fined ₹1.70 lakh. The four had been convicted of breaking into Pawan Kumar’s residence in Bhabhisa village, Shamli district, and opening fire over a longstanding rivalry. Pawan was killed; his brother Ashok Kumar sustained injuries.

A Broader Record of Capital Verdicts

The 22 Muzaffarnagar sentences bring Diwakar’s cumulative total to 35 death verdicts, according to a Times of India report. During his earlier posting in Bareilly, he had already delivered 13 capital punishment verdicts. Among those, eight members of the Chaimar Hassen gang were sentenced to death in a 2014 case involving a triple murder and dacoity.

Questions Over the “Rarest of Rare” Doctrine

The volume and tempo of the capital verdicts have prompted debate about how strictly the “rarest of rare” standard is being applied. A lawyer quoted by the Times of India cautioned that death sentences ought to be imposed only after “much deliberation” and with that principle firmly in view.

Prison rights activist Nadir Rana, speaking to the same outlet, offered a contrasting perspective:

The verdicts have given victims’ families a sense of justice and strengthened their faith in the judiciary.

Procedural Safeguard Under the BNSS

Under Section 407(1) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), every death sentence pronounced by a sessions court must be forwarded to the respective high court for confirmation. No such sentence may be executed unless the high court ratifies it.