Chandigarh, April 4 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court has commuted the death sentence awarded to an Amritsar man to jail for life in the murder and rape case of his minor daughter.

"While there is no doubt about the brutal and heinous nature of the crime committed by the accused who is none other than the father of the deceased, the fact remains that he has no criminal antecedents, hails from a poor socio-economic background and his conduct inside the jail has been satisfactory. Therefore, the instant case cannot be said to be falling in the category of 'rarest of rare cases' in which there is no alternative but to impose the death sentence," the bench of justice Gurvinder Singh and justice JS Bedi said while answering the murder refe...