The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has upheld the conviction of a 27-year-old accused for the rape and murder of his 5-month-old cousin.The HC, however, declined to confirm the death penalty imposed by the trial court, and commuted it to life imprisonment.
This judgement was passed on November 18 by a division bench of justice Rajnish Kumar and justice Rajeev Singh on an appeal filed by the convict - Premchandra aka Pappu Dixit, challenging the trial court’s judgement. The bench concluded that the prosecution had fully established the charges of murder, rape and other offences, through a chain of circumstances which referred only towards the guilt of the convict/appellant without reasonable doubt.
The court noted that though it was a ‘heinous’ crime, the act was not committed with a pre-meditated mind, hence, the death penalty was liable to be set aside.
According to the FIR lodged at the Madiaon police station, Lucknow, during a family wedding at a marriage lawn on February 16, 2020, the accused (the victim’s real cousin) took the infant from her mother at around 7 pm on the pretext of playing with her and did not return.
After hours of searching, the infant was found lying unconscious amidst bushes in a nearby vacant plot naked with blood all over her clothes and body. She was rushed to the hospital where she died. The post-mortem and medical evidence indicated “rape like” assault on the child.
{{/usCountry}}After hours of searching, the infant was found lying unconscious amidst bushes in a nearby vacant plot naked with blood all over her clothes and body. She was rushed to the hospital where she died. The post-mortem and medical evidence indicated “rape like” assault on the child.
{{/usCountry}}In September 2020, the trial court convicted the accused and as per the procedure, the reference along with the records of the case were sent to the HC. The matter was tagged with the appeal filed by the accused.
The HC concluded that although the crime was ‘heinous’, it did not fall under the “rarest of rare” category which required capital punishment.
“Therefore, the death sentence under Section 302 IPC and Section 376 (Ka)(Kha) IPC read with Section 6 POCSO Act was commuted to life imprisonment for the convict’s natural life, without remission.The life sentence under Section 364 IPC and fines imposed by the trial court were confirmed,” the court ordered.
MANOJ KUMAR SINGH