SC takes lenient view of child rapist

Rapist-cum-murderer of a three-year-old girl was shown mercy as the Supreme Court accepted his plea of not hanging him to death.

Rapist-cum-murderer of a three-year-old girl was shown mercy as the Supreme Court accepted his plea of not hanging him to death.

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Meerut-based resident Amit Kumar was not sent to gallows as the top court felt if given a chance the convict “may reform over a period of years.” A bench of Justices AK Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar accepted Kumar’s plea partly while commuting his death sentence to life imprisonment and rejecting his prayer to set him free.

The other factors that weighed in Amit’s favour were his age at the time of the incident and absence of evidence to show he “committed offences of kidnapping, rape or murder on any earlier occasion.” Amit was 28 when he committed the offence.

“There is nothing on evidence to suggest that he is likely to repeat similar crimes. On the other hand, given a chance he may reform over a period of years,” the bench observed.

The court, however, clarified that Amit’s life sentence would extend to his full life term. He could, however, be released earlier if the government remitted his sentence for “good and sufficient reasons.”

Amit was charged with rape, murder and indulging in unnatural sex with a three-year-old in March 2005.