IPC section on death penalty for rape legally right: HC told (Bombay)

04 MARCH 2019 Last Updated at 9:11 PM | SOURCE: PTI

Mumbai, Mar 4 The Indian Penal Code section that prescribes death penalty for repeat rape offenders was rightly introduced by the legislature to impose a deterrent against such crimes, the amicus curiae in the Shakti Mills gangrape case told the Bombay High Court on Monday. However, the application of this Section 376 (E) in the present case could be questionable, the amicus told a bench of justices B P Dharamadhikari and Revati Mohite-Dere which was hearing a challenge to the constitutional validity of the provision through writ petitions filed by the three death row convicts in the Shakti Mills case.

Section 376 (E) of the IPC that provides for the death penalty for repeat rape offenders was introduced by the Centre through an amendment in existing laws in 2013 following the December 2012 gangrape case in New Delhi. Advocate Abad Ponda, appointed by the court as the amicus curiae to assist it in the case in 2014, told the HC that the section was in consonance with all legal and constitutional principles. However, the section's application in the present case could be questionable, Ponda said. Earlier, during the hearing, the bench had asked the Union government what was the purpose of introducing section 376 (E) of the IPC since another sub-section, sub-section A of section 376, already prescribed the maximum punishment of death for offences of rape.

However, both the Union government and the amicus curiae defended the new section. They told the HC while sub-section A dealt with a grave case in which the victim died, or was reduced to a vegetative state, section 376 (E) provided that a person previously convicted under any sub-section of section 376 was liable to be sentenced to the maximum punishment of death for the subsequent offence of rape, if the court deemed fit. However, while the Centre has maintained that such repeat offence can occur anytime after the first offence, Ponda told the court the accused person could be termed a repeat offender only if the second offence was committed after he was convicted for rape for the first time.

The amended law has been challenged by Vijay Jadhav, Mohammad Kasim Bengali and Mohammad Salim Ansari, who were sentenced to death by a sessions court in April 2014 for raping a photojournalist in Shakti Mills compound here on August 22, 2013. The sessions court had awarded them the death penalty as they were also convicted for having raped a telephone operator in July 2013. The trials in both cases were held simultaneously and the conviction was handed out the same day. However, the sentences were awarded to the convicts within a period of two weeks from each other. The sessions court first pronounced the punishment in the telephone operator case, sentencing the convicts to life imprisonment.

It subsequently allowed a prosecution plea to charge the convicts under Section 376E and awarded the death penalty to three out of the five convicts in the Shakti Mills case. The three, however, challenged the death sentence and the constitutional validity of Section 376 (E). Their counsel in the HC, advocate Yug Chaudhry, has argued that the first conviction ought to be secured before the second offence was committed for Section 376E to be applicable in a rape case. AYA RSY RT

Source: https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/ipc-section-on-death-penalty-for-rape-legally-right-hc-told/1489937 (accessed on 29 May 2019)

After 13 years on death row, 5 men finally walk free: The fear never leaves you (Maharashtra)

Written by MAYURA JANWALKAR |Updated: March 20, 2019 12:09:15 pm 

In an unprecedented decision, the Supreme Court, after restoring the appeals of the six convicts on death row, not only set aside their conviction and death sentence but also asked the state to pay compensation of Rs 5 lakh to each of them. 

Ambadas Shinde, Bapu Shinde, Rajya Shinde in Jalna. (Express Photo by Pradip Das)

Twenty-one-year-old Arjun Shinde points to a shed built with 12 bamboo sticks and eight asbestos sheets that he and his 17-year-old brother Krishna built last week. “Not all the sheets are new, some are old. But we wanted to have some semblance of a home when Pappa came back from prison. He was coming home after 16 years. He would have felt bad to find out that his family had no home while he was gone,” says Arjun. In Bhokardan’s Kailash Nagar, stripped of lustre both by its parched backdrop and abject poverty, the shiny sheets of metal are conspicuous in their newness. The colony that is home to five extended families of the nomadic Vadar tribe, however, closed in to cheer the return of Ambadas Shinde, Bapu Shinde, Rajya Shinde last week but still wait anxiously for Raju Shinde who is yet to be released from the Nagpur Central prison for he is wanted in another case in Buldhana.

In an unprecedented decision, the Supreme Court, after restoring the appeals of the six convicts on death row, not only set aside their conviction and death sentence but also asked the state to pay compensation of Rs 5 lakh to each of them. It also directed the Maharashtra government to act against police officers who falsely implicated them in the murder of four members of Trambak Satote’s family in Nashik. But those 16 years cost everyone almost everything they had: from Bapu’s eldest son, who died while his father was in jail to Rajya, whose wife married another man and from a juvenile, who still has nightmares from staying on death row to Ambadas, whose children never went to school.

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/india/after-16-years-on-death-row-6-men-finally-walk-free-the-fear-never-leaves-you-5634861/ (accessed on 29 May 2019)

SC puts on hold child rapist-murderer's death sentence (Maharashtra)

Feb 11, 2016 00:04:03 IST

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday put on hold the execution of the death sentence of Vasanta Sampat Dupare who had sought recall of its verdict upholding his conviction and death sentence for raping and stoning to death a four-year-old girl in Maharashtra in 2008. 

An apex court bench of Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit agreed to hear the review plea by the 55-year-old death row convict as his counsel submitted that the lower court had not properly examined the additional evidences and the related exhibits in the course of the trial. Putting on hold the death sentence, the bench told his counsel to satisfy it as to how its earlier judgment, sought to be recalled, was wrong. A bench headed by Justice Misra had on November 26, 2014 had rejected Dupare's plea challenging the Bombay High court decision upholding his death penalty. 

The apex court while upholding the death sentence had said "the rape of a minor child is nothing but a monstrous burial of her dignity in darkness. It is a crime against the holy body of a girl child and the soul of the society and such a crime is aggravated by the manner in which it has been committed".

Source: https://www.firstpost.com/india/sc-puts-on-hold-child-rapist-murderers-death-sentence-2620824.html (Accessed 20 December 2018)

Death sentence given in India train blasts case

30 Sept 2015

Reuters 

Five get death penalty and seven jailed for life for planning 2006 Mumbai blasts that killed more than 180 people.

An Indian court has sentenced five men to death and jailed seven others for life for planning bomb blasts that struck Mumbai commuter trains in 2006, killing more than 180 people and wounding hundreds. KP Raghuvanshi, a former Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) chief, who had previously handled the case, welcomed Wednesday's sentencing, saying the court had recognised their investigation into the blasts.

"The whole case went on for nine years," he said. "After a long trial of nine years, the court has announced the judgement of the case. Five bomb planters have been sentenced to death by hanging and others have been convicted under different sections of the law for conspiracy, IPC [Indian Penal Code] Explosives Act, MCOCA [Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act]. The court has recognised our entire team's investigation." However, Gulzar Azmi, a representative of an organisation providing legal support to the convicts, said the trial was unfair and they would appeal in a higher court for justice.

"The real criminals behind the blasts have not been caught. They have given sentence to innocent people," he said. "It is the court's decision [to pass this judgement] but the High Court has shot down other such judgements by lower courts before." For his part, Yug Mohit Chaudhry, the defence counsel, said: "The evidence in this case is shoddy to say the least. It is not fit for conviction, let alone a death sentence." Indian police say the attack was carried out by disaffected Muslims at the behest of Pakistan-based armed groups, and named Lashkar-e-Taiba group's Pakistan-based leader, Azeem Cheema, as the prime conspirator.

Seven bombs went off within 15 minutes on the packed trains during the evening rush hour in India's financial capital on July 11, 2006, throwing the city out of gear and into an absolute state of terror. The bombs targeted an overcrowded suburban network that carries around seven million people a day.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/09/death-sentences-india-train-blasts-case-150930095309008.html (Accessed on 19 December 2018)

Maharashtra: High Court commutes death sentence of Solapur man who killed son and niece

Wednesday, 28 January 2015 - 7:15am IST | Place: Solapur | Agency: dna | From the print edition Urvi Mahajan

In August 2013, the sessions court at Solapur convicted Ombase for murdering the two children and assaulting his wife, and sentenced him to death.

The Bombay high court on Tuesday commuted the death sentence of a Solapur man who had killed his three-year-old son and nine-year-old niece after attacking his wife on December 31, 2012. A division bench of Justices VK Tahilramani and Ajey Gadkari set aside the death sentence of Sunil Ombase and sentenced him to life imprisonment for the murders.

Ombase used to work as a labourer in Mumbai and would visit hometown Solapur once a month. Suspecting his wife's character, he would often fight with her. On the night of December 31, 2012, Ombase asked his wife to choose between him and their son. When she refused to reply, he became angry and assaulted her, after which she managed to run outside the house. However, their son and niece were sleeping on a cot nearby and became his target. He assaulted them, which resulted in their deaths.

In August 2013, the sessions court at Solapur convicted Ombase for murdering the two children and assaulting his wife, and sentenced him to death. Since all death sentences need to be confirmed by the HC, the state filed a petition in the HC, seeking confirmation of the death penalty. Additionally, Ombase had challenged his death sentence, pleading innocence.

Source: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-maharashtra-high-court-commutes-death-sentence-of-solapur-man-who-killed-son-and-niece-2056071 [last accessed 09 April 2015 ]

Research studies

Death Penalty: A Human Rights Perspective
By: Reena Mary George
Guided by: Retired Justice Hosbet Suresh


Considering that the use of death penalty in India is a threat to fundamental human rights, the topic of this study, “Death Penalty: A Human Rights Perspective” is crucial. The main objectives was to study the impact of death penalty on the social, mental, and physical being of the inmate and to study the perception of opinion leaders on death penalty with reference to human rights. The study also sought to tackle the following questions: What are the living conditions of the death penalty inmates? In what ways does the current operation of death penalty in India conflicts with human rights? What are the alternatives to death penalty? What way can the study give them an opportunity to speak about their lives; their hardships as a death row inmate?

The inmates were contacted after seeking permission from the Director Inspector General. Data from the inmates was collected through prison visits. This study used a case study method. The study includes incerpts by the death row inmates themselves. It also captures the journey of the researcher in an Indian Prison Setting and the opposition by State to carry this study. The findings show that their family, their mental capacities and their physical health have been impacted in a very negative way. It further reveals the living conditions of prisoners in solitary confinement, incidents of torture to extract confession and the death row phenomenon.

It concludes with certain questions raised by the death row inmates. The recommendation is to abolish death penalty however in the interim period; there are certain facilities that the inmates should receive. It spells out that the State should be held guilty of killing people in their custody. India needs to recognise that we have a very bad standing in the world if we treat our fellow beings by hanging them and killing them in the most degrading, humiliating and cruel way. If India has pledged for a larger cause of humanity, why does it not keep her promise? Why should India wait for the rest of the world to shame us into abolishing death penalty?