Allahabad HC Upholds Death Sentence for Rape,

Murder Of Minor Girl

-October 15, 2018

Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Thursday

upheld the death penalty awarded to a 31-year-old man
convicted of raping and murdering a 12-year-old girl. The
judgment was delivered by a Bench comprising Justice RR
Awasthi and Justice Dayal.
Additional Sessions Judge, Lucknow had awarded death
penalty to the appellant, Putai, and had penalized his co-
accused, Dileep with life imprisonment. According to the
FIR lodged by the girl’s father, she went out on the evening
of September 4, 2012, to relieve herself but did not return.
Her father and others launched a search but in vain. Her
disrobed body was found in a field the next day, following
which her father lodged an FIR against unknown persons.
After police investigation, Putai and Dileep were charged
with offences under Sections 376(2)(G) (gang-rape), 302
(murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of
offence, or giving false information to screen offender) of
the Indian Penal Code.
Putai was awarded death penalty after the trial judge noted
that he was the one who killed her and also inflicted ante-
mortem injuries on her. The two convicts had now
challenged their conviction inter alia asserting that the
prosecution case was based on circumstantial evidence.
The high court, however, opined that the prosecution had
proved the case beyond doubt and that the trial court had
rightly held them guilty.
As for the death sentence awarded to Putai, the court
opined that he did not deserve any sympathy, owing to the
brutality involved in the case. It observed, “The postmortem
report of the girl clearly shows as to how brutally the victim
was subjected to forceful rape and thereafter killed by
strangulation. The manner in which the crime has been
committed reflects the mental condition of the appellants
that they, in order to satisfy their lust, committed rape on a
minor girl and thereafter killed her and also tried to conceal
the evidence by throwing her body to a nearby field after
brutally killing her.

The injuries found on the body of the deceased girl also

reflect the manner in which she was subjected to forceful
rape and one can imagine as to how much pain she must
have suffered during the commission of crime by the
appellants. In these circumstances, the appellant Putai,
who is the main accused, who committed murder after
raping the minor girl, does not deserve any sympathy by
this Court.”
The court further asserted that there was neither any
possibility of him being reformed nor any mitigating
circumstances involved. Ruling that the case fell in the
“rarest of rare category”, it observed, “The crime like one
before us, cannot be looked with giving any sympathy to the
appellants. The factors like the age of the accused and poor
background cannot be said to be the mitigating
circumstances. We do not find any justification to convert
the death sentence imposed by the learned trial court to life
imprisonment for the rest of the life.
The gruesome offence was committed with brutality. The
accused may not be hardened criminal and may not have
any previous criminal antecedents, but the manner, in
which, he has committed the crime, brings his case into
rarest of rare cases.”

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BY: Rahul Kashyap

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BBA-LLB (III)