CHENNAI: A division bench of the Madras High Court has confirmed the capital punishment imposed by a lower court on Daswanth (23), who raped a seven-year-old child and murdered her here in February last year.
“This court is conceivably satisfied that any sentence other than death would not be commensurate with the gravity of the offence committed and therefore, the case of the accused squarely falls under the category of ‘rarest of rare cases’ and definitely demands the sentence of death and accordingly finds no reason to deviate from the sentence awarded by the trial court and accordingly confirms the sentence of death,” a bench of Justices S Vimala and S Ramathilagam has said.
In their 92-page judgment delivered on Tuesday, the judges said, “This court, though swayed by the demands for abolition of capital punishment... is still conscious of the larger social interest and attendant implications of letting out the criminals involved in child sexual abuse....” It was of the view that the prosecution had proved the case against the accused beyond all reasonable doubt. The bench was dismissing a criminal appeal from Daswanth to set aside the conviction and sentence passed by the Sessions Judge, Mahila Court at Chengalpattu on February 19, this year.
According to prosecution, the accused abducted the child when she was playing near her house at Mugalivakkam on February 5, 2017. He took her to his flat, raped and killed her. Later, he burnt the body at a secluded spot. On the urging of the girl’s frantic father, police spent 40 hours browsing CCTV camera footage, repeated viewings of which ultimately led to finding parts of the child’s burnt body. Daswanth is also alleged to have murdered his mother while out on bail last year.