The Madhya Pradesh High Court at Jabalpur partially allowed an appeal filed by a convict, who was convicted for the brutal rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl. The Division Bench of Justices Vivek Agarwal and Devnarayan Mishra upheld the conviction but commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment without the benefit of remission until the convict completes 25 years in prison.
Brief Facts:
The incident occurred in April 2019 in Sagar district, where the minor victim was last seen with the appellant before her lifeless body was discovered in a forest area. The trial court had awarded a death sentence under Section 302 IPC, along with convictions under Sections 363, 366A, 376(3), 376(2)(f) IPC and Section 5(n) read with Section 6 of the POCSO Act.
While acknowledging the gravity of the offence, the Court considered the appellant’s young age (24 years), lack of prior criminal antecedents, and the pendency of a previous conviction involving an elderly victim, to conclude that it was not a ‘rarest of rare’ case warranting capital punishment. The Court drew on precedents such as Swamy Shraddananda v. State of Karnataka, (2008) 13 SCC 767 and Arvind Singh v. State of Maharashtra (2021) 11 SCC 1, to impose a sentence of life imprisonment till natural life, with a mandatory 25-year minimum term without remission.
The Court while partly allowing the criminal appeal, modified the sentence while upholding all convictions and fines imposed by the trial court.
Appearance:
Shri Nitin Kumar Gupta – Public Prosecutor for the reference-petitioner.
Shri Aditya Adhikari – Senior Advocate assisted by Shri Kaustubh Chaturvedi – Advocate for the respondent
Read the Judgment
