India, Sept. 9 -- MEERUT Additional district and sessions judge, Ravi Kumar Diwakar, while pronouncing his 23rd capital punishment in the last five months in a murder case on Monday (September 7), said in his verdict that he would prefer death to being called a "coward judge".

The judge's statement came in a ruling, wherein he sentenced one Nadeem to death in the 2018 Shahpur Shahzadi murder case and imposed a fine of Rs.1 lakh on him. The case related to Nadeem allegedly setting ablaze his wife Shehzadi, 23, in Shahpur town on July 23, 2018, over dowry demands.

Diwakar's judgment also contained observations about alleged threats, pressure on the judiciary and the influence of gangsters and mafia in western Uttar Pradesh.

He said his p...