Death penalty of 34-yr-old child rapist commuted to life sentence

Death penalty of 34-yr-old child rapist commuted to life sentence

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:28.04.2021 

The death sentence awarded to a 34-year-old man who had raped and murdered a seven-year-old girl has now been commuted into one of life term, but he shall serve at least 25 years of actual imprisonment. Altering the death penalty, awarded by the Mahila court in Coimbatore, a division bench of Justice P N Prakash and Justice V Sivagnanam said the convict, Santhosh Kumar, should not be released under any statutory remission or commutation scheme until he had undergone 25 years of actual imprisonment. “It is a crime against a hapless minor girl,” the judges said.

Since the DNA reports disclosed the involvement of an unidentified male other than Santhosh Kumar in the crime, the bench upheld the order of the trial court directing further investigation in the case. “It has not been demonstrated to us that Santhosh Kumar 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,” the court said.

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, the bench added.

Modifying the order passed by the Coimbatore Mahila court, the bench directed Santhosh Kumar to pay ₹1lakh as fine in default of thereof, he will undergo simple imprisonment for one year. This part, the court 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 place of occurrence of the crime. Santhosh Kumar had raped and murdered the girl, daughter of a neighbour of his grandmother, at Pannimadai and dumped the body in a garbage bin on March 25, 2019. She was found with her limbs tied and the body bearing injuries, triggering protests by locals. Santhosh Kumar was arrested on March 31, 2019.