BREAKING: GANG RAPE AND MURDER OF A MINOR GIRL

BREAKING: GANG RAPE AND MURDER OF A MINOR GIRL

                                                                                          APPORV PAL 

BACKGROUND:

Death sentenced was given by the Supreme Court to a man who was accused in the gang rape and murder of 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 the 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 the 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 the 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 (GANG RAPE AND MURDER OF A MINOR GIRL):

"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 heard by a three-judge bench comprising of Justices Rohinton Fali Nariman, Surya Kant, Sanjeev Khanna. The court referred to 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 people of a family. The court said that this offence is more brutal then the Khushwinder Singh case, therefore, the death penalty must be given to the accused.

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CONCLUSION:

Justices Rohinton Fali Nariman and Surya Kant observed the case and said that the case falls 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.

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