BREAKING: GANG RAPE AND MURDER OF MINOR GIRL: SC

CONFIRMS DEATH SENTENCE

APPORV PAL
BACKGROUND:

Death sentenced was given by the Supreme Court to a man who was accused in the rape of a
minor girl child, aged about 10yrs, and the murder of the girl child and his brother

The accused was involved in the gang rape and murder of a minor girl child and his brother. He
was given death penalty by the trial court as well as the High court also gave him the death
penalty. He further approached the Supreme Court to remove death penalty but after going
through the issues involved and the facts the Supreme Court upheld the order of the High Court
by giving him death penalty. The two judges agreed with the death penalty but one was not in
favour of the death penalty instead he advised for the life imprisonment.

CURRENT ISSUE:

“There can be no doubt that this judgment is in keeping with the legislature’s realization that
such crimes are on the rise and must be dealt with severely” said the Hon’ble Bench.

A priest, Mohanakrishnan, and Manoharan were the two who were involved in raping and
murdering a girl child and his brother. Mohanakrishnan was killed in an encounter by the police
while Manoharan was arrested by the police. Manoharan was then presented before the trial
court. The trial court sentenced him death penalty observing such a heinous offence. He then
approached the Madras High Court to minimize his penalty but the High Court too observed that
the crime was very heinous and upheld the decision of the Trial Court.

The accused then unsatisfied with the decision approached the Supreme Court which was heared
by three judge bench comprising of Justices Rohinton Fali Nariman, Surya Kant, Sanjeev
Khanna. The court referred to the section 5 (m) of the POCSO Act (Prevention of Children from
Sexual Assault) which deals with the sexual assault done by a person to a child below 12 yrs of
age. Further the judge referred to the Kushwinder Singh case where his death penalty was upheld
by the Supreme Court, convicted for murdering 6 person of a family. The court said that this
offence is more brutal then the Khushwinder Singh case therefore death penalty must be given to
the accused.

CONCLUSION:

Justices Rohinton Fali Nariman and Surya Kant observed the case and said that the case fall
under the category of rarest of the rare and death penalty should be given while Justice Sanjeev
Khanna said that the case doesn’t fall under the category of rarest of the rare but the case would
fall under the special category of the cases and instead of death penalty accused should be
punished with life imprisonment.