In what can be termed one of the most heinous crimes in the city, in 2017, a man from Kolhapur gruesomely murdered his 63-year-old mother, later chopping up the body and eating some organs after frying them in a pan.
The victim was identified as Yallama Rama Kuchkoravi, and the accused is her son, Sunil Kuchkoravi. The incident was reported on August 28, 2017, at their residence in Kolhapur city, around 400 km from Mumbai.
The prosecution claimed that his mother had refused to give him money to buy liquor, which triggered the brutal murder.
The prosecution also demonstrated that Kuchkoravi used three different types of weapons to murder his mother, indicating a “preplanned and premeditated design in his mind as to how he would dissect the body” after killing her, the court said.
“The brutality and cruelty with which the convict dealt with the body of his mother is evident from the fact that he even cut the genital organ of his mother, which is one of the causes associated with her death. The torture and pain the deceased must have suffered is unimaginable and unfathomable,” the court underlined.
Kuchkoravi was sentenced to death by a Kolhapur court in 2021.
Here's what the court said
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday confirmed the death sentence of Sunil Kuchkoravi for murdering and eviscerating his mother in an inebriated state with cannibalistic intent in Kolhapur in 2017, observing there is “absolutely no chance of reformation or rehabilitation” of the convict.
The court also noted that Kuchkoravi’s conduct was akin to “pathological cannibalism” and hence could be a potential threat to inmates if his sentence were reduced to life in prison until death.
The court remarked that it was a “brutal, barbaric, and gruesome murder” of a 60-year-old mother by her son, who she used to provide with meals twice a day after his wife and children abandoned him. His family left him because he would quarrel with and beat his wife for money to buy liquor. He used to argue with his mother, who survived on her late husband’s pension of ₹4,000 per month.
Defence counsel Yug Chaudhry referred to a report by the Probationary Officer of Kolhapur, stating that Kuchkoravi consumed the flesh of cats and pigs, suggesting he could have committed the murder. The court found this argument "shocking," viewing it as an admission of cannibalistic tendencies. The bench emphasized that releasing such a person would pose a risk to society, calling it an aggravating circumstance. The court further noted that Kuchkoravi's extreme brutality and cannibalism could endanger other inmates if his death sentence were reduced to life imprisonment, making his social reintegration impossible.
(With inputs from Urvi Mahajani)
