23 death terms in 5 months: Judge's cases transferred; not afraid of mafia, he says

Additional District and Sessions Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar sentenced a man to death for burning his wife over dowry demands. He said judges cannot act in fear, claimed criminal threats and alleged case transfers helped mafias.

In Short

• UP Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar handed 23rd death sentence in 5 months
• He prefers death over being called a coward judge
• Claims 100 cases were transferred to benefit criminals

Additional District and Sessions Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar, who handed down his 23rd death sentence in the past five months, said he would “prefer death” to being known as a “coward judge” and claimed that 100 criminal cases had been transferred from his court to benefit mafias, gangsters and criminals.

While pronouncing the death penalty on a man convicted of burning his wife to death over dowry demands, Diwakar on Monday said his parents had taught him to fear God and no one else, adding that if he performed his judicial duties out of fear of criminals, public faith in the judiciary would erode.

“I would prefer death to being called a coward judge,” Diwakar said in his judgment, asserting that he would continue serving as long as he was able to follow his principles.

The judge also said he had been receiving threats from mafias and criminals.

It is learnt that Diwakar has sought protection from senior officers, alleging that his security cover in Muzaffarnagar has been reduced.

With Monday’s verdict, Diwakar’s court has awarded the death penalty to 23 convicts in 11 cases over the past four months, government counsel Kuldeep Kumar said.

The cases earlier handled by Diwakar included the murders of a lawyer, a home guard and a farmer, as well as a highway robbery-murder.

In the case decided on Monday, Diwakar’s court convicted the accused and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh, according to Kumar.

The case concerned the death of the man's 23-year-old wife, who was set ablaze by him on July 23, 2018, over dowry demands.

She was taken to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital in a serious condition, where she later died. In her statement recorded before her death, she claimed that Nadeem had set her on fire, the government counsel said.

Although all 11 prosecution witnesses turned hostile during the trial, the court convicted the accused on the basis of his wife’s dying declaration, Kumar said.

Earlier in August, around 100 murder cases pending before Diwakar were transferred to the court of District and Sessions Judge Virendra Kumar Singh through an administrative order.

The transfer came amid apprehensions among lawyers and litigants over the possibility of the fast-track court awarding capital punishment.

Diwakar joined the Uttar Pradesh judicial service as a civil judge in 2009 and has served in several districts, including Sultanpur, Budaun, Varanasi and Bareilly. He has been posted in Muzaffarnagar since November 2025.

He first drew national attention in 2022 while serving as a civil judge in Varanasi, when he ordered a videographic survey of the Gyanvapi mosque complex. He later reported receiving death threats and malicious calls from international numbers following the order.

In March 2024, Diwakar again made headlines after describing Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as an example of Plato’s “philosopher king” in an order related to the 2010 Bareilly riots.

The Allahabad High Court subsequently expunged the remarks.

- Ends