HC commutes death penalty of four to 30-year jail in 2023 Kurukshetra doctor’s murder case | Hindustan Times
The Punjab and Haryana high court has commuted death sentence, awarded to four men, to 30-year-jail and acquitted one woman in the January 2023 murder of a Kurukshetra woman doctor.
In December 2025, the court of additional district and sessions judge held the five persons guilty and awarded them death penalty under Section 302 (murder) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code . (HT File)The victim, Dr Vanita Arora, stayed with her husband and in-laws on the first floor, while the ground floor housed their clinic in Thanesar area of the district. Her husband, Dr Atul Arora, told police that around 9.20 pm on January 9, 2023, he was in his parents’ room when he heard his wife scream. He rushed to her but was waylaid by two men who put a pistol to his head and took him to the drawing room. They began asking him for money and jewellery. Dr Arora took out approximately ₹1 lakh and gave it to them. After that, he said, he heard no further voices from his wife. He somehow managed to escape, and jumped into the adjacent school’s building and alerted his neighbours, who called the police. Once the police arrived, Dr Arora went upstairs only to find his wife lying dead and the jewellery missing.
During the course of investigation, the role of the couple’s former maid, Poonam, was established. She was subsequently arrested along with her aides. Now, Poonam, awarded death sentence, has been acquitted by high court.
In December 2025, the court of additional district and sessions judge held the five persons guilty and awarded them death penalty under Section 302 (murder) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and awarded death sentence. Four others included Sunil Kumar, Manish Kumar, Vikramjeet alias Bittu and Vikram alias Vicky.
The court ruled that the convicts entered the house at night as part of a concerted plan, were armed, restrained the occupants and proceeded to commit robbery and in the process, the woman doctor received fatal injury in her head.
The court observed that though the offence is grave and has shaken the conscience of society, but does not warrant capital punishment as the only punishment to be imposed. “The accused are between 26 and 31 years of age, hail from financially modest backgrounds, have limited education, and none is suffering from any active psychiatric illness,” bench of justice Vinod S Bhardwaj and justice Ravinder Malik observed
It further recorded that it cannot be said with certainty that the accused are beyond reform or incapable of returning to the fold of society. “At the same time, this court cannot be oblivious to the adverse circumstances: a woman was done to death within the sanctity of her home, in pursuance of a conspiracy hatched with deliberation, and some of the accused carry a long history of involvement in other criminal cases,”
“These aggravating features rule out any leniency that would belittle the loss suffered. We also ponder whether the true measure of a sentence lies in how swiftly it ends a life or in how long it compels a person to live with what he has done. A sentence that gives every morning for decades to reflect and repent is no mean sentence,” it said adding that while a family has lost one of its own, the law need not extinguish the lives of the convicts to vindicate that loss; it must instead ensure that they spend the prime of their lives in confinement, answerable for the crime, with the door of reform left ajar, but not of release.
Surender Sharma is a Chandigarh based journalist with two decades of experience. Leads Chandigarh (Tricity) reporters' team and also covers Punjab and Haryana High Court.
