Abolish Death Penalty India: East Champaran district

Sunday, December 23, 2018

Court awards man death penalty for raping and murdering two-and-a- half-year-old girl (Bihar)

Updated: Nov 16, 2017 22:26 IST

Press Trust of India

Motihari: A court here has awarded death sentence to a man for raping and killing a two-and-a- half-year-old girl six years ago.

Additional District and Sessions Judge DN Yadav held Dhruv Sahni guilty of the rape and murder on Thursday and awarded him death sentence on the ground that the case fell under the “rarest of rare” category. The court handed out the death penalty to the convict for the murder, under section 302 of the IPC. It also sentenced Sahni to 20 years of imprisonment and slapped a fine of Rs 20,000 on him for the rape, under section 376, IPC.

The convict was also sentenced to seven years in jail under section 201, IPC for causing disappearance of evidence in the case. The court, however, acquitted the three other accused in the case for lack of evidence against them. The convict, a resident of Akauna village of the district, has been lodged in the Motihari central jail since his arrest soon after the incident was reported in 2011.

As per the prosecution, Sahni took the toddler to a field, where he raped her before slitting her throat with a knife on March 21, 2011. The family members of the child were watching television at a neighbour’s house when the crime took place. The body of the girl was found from a wheat field the next day and subsequently, an FIR was lodged by her father, Sagar Sahni, against four persons, including Sahni. The police had recovered the knife used in the crime from the spot and the convict had confessed to his crime after his arrest on March 30, 2011, according to the prosecution.

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/bihar-court-awards-man-death-penalty-for-raping-and-murdering-toddler/story-TZNH037sMHTYCLJmVlWiNJ.html (Accessed 23 December 2018)

Court awards death sentence to man convicted for rape, murder of child (Bihar)

Published: November 16, 2017 15:48

Lata Rani, Correspondent

Patna: A local court in Bihar has handed out death penalty to a man found guilty for cruelly murdering a two-and-a-half-year-old baby after rape six years back. The judgement which has been described as the “rarest of rare” comes amid a spate of rape cases gripping the eastern Indian state in recent months.

The court of Dhruv Narayn Yadav in Bihar’s east Champaran district awarded the sentence of hanging the accused till death on Wednesday soon after he was convicted by the court in the horrible rape-cum-murder case. The court also imposed a monetary fine on the accused identified as Dhruv Sahani. “We had sought for maximum punishment in the case since the crime committed here was inhumane and heinous and also we had sufficient evidence to prove the charges against the accused. And, the court eventually awarded death penalty to the accused terming it as the ‘rarest of rare’ case,” a local government council Subhash Chandra Prasad Yadav told the media Thursday.

The judgement comes more than six years after the incident had taken place. According to court records, the baby was playing outside her house at a village under Chiraiya police station in East Champaran district when the accused took her to a nearby field, raped her and then slit her throat with a sharp knife. He also tried to destroy the evidence before fleeing the scene. Reports said the victim’s family members were at home as it the Hindu festival of Holi time when the accused took advantage of the situation. Initially, a missing person case was registered with the police, but soon it was converted into murder after her body was recovered from the field.

Incidents of rape remain a matter of grave concern in Bihar, and according to an official report, a total of 922 cases of rape have been reported till September this year. Last year, altogether, 1,008 incidents of rape had been reported, followed by 1,041 in 2015, 1,127 in 2014 and 1,128 in 2013. Similarly, 927 cases were reported in 2012, 934 in 2011, 795 in 2010, 929 in 2009, 1,041 in 2008, 1,122 in 2007, 1,083 in 2006 and 973 in 2005 — the year when chief minister Nitish Kumar came to power doing away with 15 years of Rashtriya Janata Dal regime. Criminal incidents refuse to die down despite repeated claims by the Nitish Kumar government. The gravity of the situation is underlined from the fact that a total of 173,645 incidents of cognisable offences have been reported till September this year. Last year, a total of 189,681 cognisable offences had been reported.

Source: https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/india/court-hands-out-death-penalty-to-man-for-killing-2-year-old-after-rape-1.2125662 (Accessed 23 December 2018)

The Death Penalty Scenario in India

India is one of 193 countries that retains the death penalty. Some judges have delivered landmark verdicts upholding the rights of death row prisoners, while debates continue advocating abolition or reform of sentencing policies. The Indian government remains committed to retention, asserting executions occur only in “rarest of rare” cases. The death penalty applies to crimes including murder, kidnapping, terrorism, desertion, inducement to suicide of a minor or mentally-retarded person, and in certain cases of rape. Outrage over child rape and murder has intensified these discussions. After an unofficial eight-year moratorium, the government executed Ajmal Kasab (Mumbai attacks) in 2012 and Afzal Guru (Parliament attack) in 2013, both covertly and immediately after mercy petitions were rejected. Prior to this, Dhananjoy Chatterjee was executed in 2004 after 13 years on death row. Following these, many mercy petitions have been rejected, creating fear among death row convicts. Courts continue to hand down death sentences at an increasing rate. Empirical studies highlight the plight of death row prisoners. The India Exclusion Report 2017-18 found fair trial rights largely denied, with convicts often marginalized by caste, religion, poverty, and education. The Death Penalty Research Project (2015) documented socio-economic profiles and experiences of death row prisoners. Dr. Reena Mary George’s studies (2014, 2009) emphasized poverty, social exclusion, and dignity as central to death row experiences, and examined the human rights impact of the penalty. According to the National Crime Records Bureau 2015, 101 prisoners were on death row, with many sentences commuted to life. The “rarest of rare” doctrine introduced by the Supreme Court in the 1980s has not substantially limited death sentences, which have increased over the decades. Justice Joseph (2018) reaffirmed the Bachan Singh judgment but urged restriction of the death penalty to only those cases meeting its criteria. While updating the blog and conducting my own empirical studies, I observed the heinous nature of the crimes that were committed and thought about the families, about their loss, about the victims who for no fault of their own died. If I lost my relative or a dear friend, would I still oppose death penalty and would I still advocate to abolish the death sentence? Having worked in the criminal justice system and also having the seen the other side, where often it is the marginalized, vulnerable and oppressed who are on death row makes me want to advocate for abolition of this punishment. Victims should definitely get justice for their loss, for their pain. No one should escape the rule of law. As long as humanity exists; crime will exist. Should we not re-consider our sentencing policies? Reena Mary George