CHENNAI: A division bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday commuted the death sentence awarded to a 34-year-old to a life sentence in the rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl in Coimbatore on March 25, 2019. However, the bench ordered that life imprisonment should be with at least 25 years of actual imprisonment.
“We are satisfied that this case does not come within the category of rarest of rare cases’ by applying the principles laid down by the Supreme Court,” ruled the bench of Justices P N Prakash and V Sivagnanam and commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment.
“It has not been demonstrated to us that the appellant was addicted to crime and that he is a menace to society, thereby ruling out any possibility of reformation. In the facts of this case, we are unable to persuade ourselves to hold that a sentence lesser than the death penalty is completely foreclosed.
As life imprisonment is the rule and death sentence is the exception, the sentence of death awarded by the trial court is commuted to imprisonment for life with the rider that the appellant will not be entitled to any statutory remission or commutation until he has completed 25 years of actual imprisonment..........”, observed the bench.
The court also directed the DGP to order an inquiry by an officer of the rank of DIG to take suitable action against the officer, who was responsible for permitting the media to have free access to the scene of the crime. Since the DNA reports disclosed the involvement of an unidentified male other than the accused in the crime, the bench upheld the order of the trial court directing further investigation in the case.
The bench then disposed the referred trial by the Thudiyalur police seeking to confirm the sentence and a criminal appeal from the accused, challenging the order dated December 27, 2019 of the Sessions Court, Special Court for the Exclusive trial of cases under the POCSO Act in Coimbatore. The bench also ordered the compensation of `10 lakh awarded by the trial Court to the mother of the victim girl to be paid within three months.