India gives the death penalty, but never executes it: Atul Nihale Triple Death Sentences

Cinematic horror would quake in its boots if it ever saw the abominations of mankind, inhumane sadists getting to live humanely in jails. A death sentence stands, but execution remains years away, justice remains years—if not all the way—away.

The 5-year-old girl from Bhopal’s Shahjahanabad area went missing around 11:30 a.m. on 24th September, 2024. A child who had barely learned to count to 10 stripped of basic human rights before she could even reach a decade of life. The irony of life is beyond cruel when she hardly got to live it.

She lived in a multi-complex and had stepped out of her home to collect a book from a nearby Anganwadi centre. When she could not be found even after searching, the family approached the police and lodged a missing person complaint. Based on the report, a kidnapping case was filed. Seeing the seriousness of the situation, about 200 police personnel were deployed to search for the girl. No clue was found at first, who would have thought that the criminal resided about eight feet away from her home. During the massive search operation, the police detected a foul smell emanating from a flat at Bajpai Nagar, Eidgah Hills. Upon forcibly entering the premises, a white plastic water tank placed in the bathroom was found to contain the decomposed body of the child. Forty-eight hours had passed since the disappearance, and the weight on her parents’ hearts trampled them into innumerable pieces as they identified the body.

What good would a relief amount of 10 lakh and a job offer by the government do when their little girl was deprived of life, and the culprit is duly fed in jail?! Mind you, Atul Nihale, 32, was a habitual offender with 5 criminal cases pending against him. Yet he roamed freely with no official following his trail until the latest offence became too brutal to be ignored in September 2024. About 25-30 places in the multi-complex were subject to the requirement of CCTV cameras’ installation, a discovery made after the case got huge. This must make one wonder, are crimes investigated only when they get uglier and cause mayhem on a large scale? Why must we wait for a rather more grave offense to convict the offender?

Bhopal’s Special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO) delivered a landmark verdict on March 18, 2025. Nihale was given a triple death sentence — the first such verdict in Madhya Pradesh under the new Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Co accused Basanti Bai, his mother, and Chanchal, his sister, were convicted for abetment and given life imprisonment. Life imprisonment in India could be personified as a political party with high claims of development but substantially low rate of action, it is not what it seems. Interestingly, it has a subtext regarding premature releases. The Supreme Court in 2021 stated that state governments have no power under the criminal procedure code to release a person sentenced to life imprisonment prior to undergoing a minimum 14 years' jail term. However, the Governor, using his powers under Article 161 of the Constitution, can remit the sentence of a lifer even before serving 14 years in prison on the advice of the Council of Ministers. The Prison Statistics in India Report (2022) showed how the number of prisoners released doubled in 2022.

The Supreme Court questioned in 2023: “What is achieved by keeping a reformed convict in prison forever?”
Dear Government, your subjects question you: “How can you ever be truly sure that one is reformed?”

Around 32% of the prison population admitted during the year 2022 comprised habitual offenders. Recidivism occurs at such a rate, and the government is gullible about reformation.

In January 2026, a Division Bench of the High Court described Nihale’s crime as a “barbaric act of a depraved mind” and placed it in the “rarest of rare” category. The court rejected all mitigating arguments, including the convict’s socio-economic background, citing his prior criminal record as proof of irredeemable character. Yet, as of March 2026, the Supreme Court stayed the execution of the death sentence pending a comprehensive sentencing review. It directed authorities to prepare detailed reports of Nihale’s mental health, prison conduct and personal background. A mitigation investigator from NALSAR University of Law was permitted to interview him in prison.

A mental health report is rather a means of delay when the person is not ill in mind but ill in intent. A prison conduct report can not perceive the convict’s conviction to commit more crimes. An interview will do no good; a criminal is an actor without an Oscar. What is the essence of a triple death sentence by POCSO when three separate death penalties, that are supposed to ensure that the death sentence stands even if one is overturned, cannot sway the court to resort to quick justice? B.R. Ambedkar said once that the constitution is more than a lawyer’s document, its true purpose is to guide the progress of the society, protect the fundamental rights of citizens and achieve justice. The Right to Life of a five-year-old was plucked before she could even bloom, and the frequent offender’s rights suddenly matter more. The court has laws that evaluate the criminality of a criminal, not the intensity of the crime. It seems like the system has shattered terribly enough to quantify the harm by reports instead of upholding integrity.

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