Overview

• On July 24, the Sheopur District Court convicted 26-year-old Deepak Pachauri under Section 302 of the IPC and imposed the death penalty by hanging.
• The court also sentenced him to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment under Section 201 IPC for destroying evidence and levied fines of Rs 1,000 under each section.
• Prosecutors proved that Pachauri killed his adoptive mother, Usha Devi, on May 6, 2024, after she refused to hand over her ₹32 lakh fixed deposit where he was sole nominee.
• Investigators exhumed her body buried beneath a bathroom floor following inconsistencies in Pachauri’s missing person report, and he later confessed during police interrogation.
• The verdict drew heavily from the Ramayan, Guru Granth Sahib, Bible and Quran to highlight the severity of matricide and deter similar financial exploitation of the elderly.