Supreme Court Stays Death Sentence Of Woman Who Killed 7 Family Members (Punjab)

All India | Indo-Asian News Service | Updated: October 13, 2018 00:24 IST 

NEW DELHI: 

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the execution of the death sentence of Sonam, convicted of killing seven members of her family, along with her friend Naveen, at a Rohtak village in Haryana in September 2009. 

Sonam and Naveen

Sonam was to be hanged on October 16. Describing Sonam and Naveen as "monsters", the Punjab and Haryana High Court had confirmed their death sentence on July 17, 2018. The execution of the death sentence of Naveen was stayed on September 7. Sonam, along with her boyfriend Naveen, had killed seven members of her family at Rohtak's Kabuulpur village. Her family was against her wish to marry Naveen who belonged to same clan -- Dagar.

The bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Navin Sinha stayed the execution of the death sentence. The court issued a notice to Haryana on the plea by Sonam. She was represented by lawyer A Sirajudeen. The two had killed Sonam's parents (Surender, 45, and Promila, 40), brother Arvind, 15, grandmother Bhuro Devi, 70, and three cousins Vishal, 10, Sonika, 12, and Monica, 14. The court had called for the record of the case from the High court on September 7 when Naveen's death sentence was stayed.

Source: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/top-court-stays-death-sentence-of-woman-who-killed-7-family-members-1931353 (Accessed 25 December 2018)

Supreme Court Stays Death Sentence of Man Convicted of Raping 4-Year-Old (Madhya Pradesh)

In the seven months since Madhya Pradesh passed a Bill changing the child rape law, as many as 12 people have been given the death penalty in child rape cases.

18/SEP/2018

New Delhi: On Tuesday, the Supreme Court stayed the death sentence award, pending an appeal, given to a man convicted for the rape and murder of a four-year-old girl in Madhya Pradesh.

In December last year, the state assembly passed a Bill mandating death penalty for those who are convicted of raping children below the age of 12 years. While Madhya Pradesh was the first state to pass a law of this kind, Haryana, Rajasthan and Arunachal Pradesh did the same soon afterwards. Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir have also expressed their resolve to pass such a Bill. In July this year, the Lok Sabha too followed suit – passing a Bill to make the death penalty applicable to those convicted of raping girls below the age of 12 years. Before that, in April, after the Narendra Modi government was accused of apathy and inaction on the Kathua and Unnao child gangrape cases, the Centre passed an ordinance prescribing the death penalty for those guilty of raping children under 12 years of age.

In the seven months since Madhya Pradesh passed the Bill, as many as 12 people have been given the death penalty in child rape cases. In one case, Indian Express has reported, the trial lasted for only five days. According to the newspaper, Rajkumar, the accused in this case, had a hard time finding a lawyer due to “an informal understanding among lawyers in district courts across the state not to represent the rape accused”. Says Santosh Paroha, the vice-president of the Katni District Bar Association, “No one should represent accused involved in such crimes. We did not pass a resolution but it was decided when lawyers spoke to each other. Next time we will pass a formal resolution.” So, like in other cases where a family can’t find or afford a lawyer, Rajkumar was provided one under the free legal aid programme.

Cases usually get assigned to lawyers who at that time are free to take them up. Rajkumar got B M Singh Rathore, 52, a lawyer with 20 years of practice. He does not have an office and operates from Bar Hall No. 2 at the District and Sessions Court. He also operates from a corridor in the old court building, where two rickety chairs are chained to his table. He says there are months when he has 10 clients at a time and days when he has none. Because trials last long, advocates like him make about Rs 50,000 per trial, he says. Rathore says he got a call on July 20, the same day the chargesheet was filed against Rajkumar in the Special Court that deals with cases under the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act. Among the courts operating on the District and Sessions Court premises, the Special Court was set up four years ago, and has hundreds of cases before it, with no exact record.

The court was closed for two days after charges were framed against Rajkumar. Between July 23 and July 25, 20 witnesses were examined, and on July 26, Rajkumar’s statement was recorded. The verdict was given at 3 pm on July 27. “I did not even get time to speak to the accused,” complains Rathore. Adding that Rajkumar wasn’t given sufficient opportunity to defend himself, he says, “I have never seen witnesses turning up so fast. Often they do so only when summons are served.”

Death penalty a deterrent?

While several people are opposed to capital punishment in general on moral grounds, several have also raised questions about its ability to act as a deterrent. Women’s rights groups and criminologists have repeatedly maintained that the answer to heinous sexual crimes against children and women is not the death penalty but the strengthening of investigation and prosecution process so that the perpetrators can actually be convicted of their crimes in the first place. According to data gathered by the National Criminal Research Bureau (NCRB), the conviction rate of those accused of sexual crimes against girls in 2015 was only 34%. Of the 5,361 trials completed in 2015, 1,843 ended in conviction, while 3,518 led to acquittal or discharge of the accused.

As the Unnao case demonstrated, it is often the refusal of the police to register a complaint and investigate the crime properly that is the primary obstacle in the path to justice. Even if an investigation is launched, the political connections of the accused can lead to pressure on the police to back off the case. Writing in The Wire, lawyer Vrinda Bhandari argued that the death penalty may actually lead to rapists killing their victims so they have less chance of getting caught. It could also lead to victims being more hesitant in reporting cases, especially if the perpetrator is known to them – something that has been repeatedly argued in the discourse of sexual violence against women. Indian law already provides for the death penalty as the maximum punishment in a case of murder, and for repeat rape offenders. Deterrent theories of sentencing are predicated on the rationality of offenders, i.e. they presume that the fear of possible death will deter a would-be offender from committing a serious crime. Assuming this is correct, the result of introducing the death penalty for child rape would be that the law now provides an incentive for the perpetrators to rape and then murder their victim – after all, it eliminates an incriminating and often solitary witness to the crime at no additional cost.

Moreover, in India, the efficacy of deterrence in reducing crime is deeply doubtful, considering that the certainty of punishment itself is very low for a variety of reasons. First, due to social stigma, deep-seated patriarchy and a long drawn and often humiliating investigation and trial process, there is under-reporting of incidents of rape and sexual assault. The victim (often at the behest of her family) is simply unwilling to report such crimes and live through the public ordeal and possible reprisal that follow. This is particularly so, because 94.6% of rapes (as per the 2016 NCRB ‘Crime in India’ data) are cases of acquaintance rape, i.e. where the offender is known to the victim, either as a family member, or neighbour, co-worker etc. It is important to remember that these numbers are percentages of the total 38,947 reported cases, and probably underestimate the prevalence of acquaintance rape.

The introduction of death penalty for child rape will, in all likelihood, increase the hesitation of the victim to prosecute rapists, since the fear of the dire and irreversible consequences facing the perpetrator may increase the pressure on the victim from her family to maintain silence, or to turn hostile during trial. 

An earlier version of the article incorrectly said that the court ‘set aside’ the death sentence instead of staying the execution. The error has been corrected.

Source: https://thewire.in/rights/supreme-court-sets-aside-death-sentence-of-mp-man-convicted-of-raping-4-year-old (Accessed 25 December 2018)

SC Stays Execution Of Death Penalty In 7-Yr-Old Rape And Murder Case (Uttar Pradesh)

BY: ASHOK KINI SEPTEMBER 1, 2018 7:07 PM

“The sex maniacs are prowling in the society like wild wolves to quench their sinful bodily lust. They leave no stone unturned. In this evil pursuit they even do not spare infants and children,” the high court had said in the judgment.

The Supreme Court has stayed execution of death penalty imposed on a man accused of rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl. Calling for the records from the high court, the bench headed by the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra ordered that the death sentence imposed on Pappu shall not be executed. On 6 October 2017, a division bench of Allahabad High Court had affirmed conviction and death sentence imposed by the trial court on Pappu. The prosecution case was that accused Pappu allured the 7-year-old girl to provide her lychee as a prelude to his sinister design which resulted in her kidnapping, brutal rape, and gruesome murder; which culminated in concealing her dead body near the banks of a river beside the bushes. The session’s court had awarded death penalty to the accused after convicting him. 

While confirming the death sentence, the bench had held that this is a ‘rarest of rare cases’ where the sentence of death is eminently desirable not only to deter others from committing such atrocious crimes but also to give emphatic expression to society’s an abhorrence of such crime. “The accused person-appellant Pappu who belonged to the same caste, social strata and native place of the deceased minor girl Amrata; allured her to provide her Lychee apparently as a prelude to his sinister design which resulted in her kidnapping, brutal rape and gruesome murder-as the numerous ante-mortem injuries on her person testify; which culminated in concealing her dead body near the banks of the river beside the bushes and innocent helpless and hapless girl of 7 years was subjected to such barbaric treatment by a person who was in a position to win her trust. His culpability is of enormous proportion and arouses a sense of revulsion in the mind of the common man,” the bench had remarked It had also said: “The sex maniacs are prowling in the society like wild wolves to quench their sinful bodily lust. They leave no stone unturned. In this evil pursuit they even do not spare infants and children.” 

Source: https://www.livelaw.in/sc-stays-execution-of-death-penalty-in-7-yr-old-rape-and-murder-case-read-order/ (Accessed 25 December 2018)

SC stays execution of death row convict in rape-cum-murder case (Madhya Pradesh)

Posted at: May 27, 2018, 4:45 PM 

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has stayed the execution of a death row convict who was awarded capital punishment for raping and murdering an 11-year-old girl in Madhya Pradesh last year.

A Bench comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and Indu Malhotra also issued notice to the Madhya Pradesh Police seeking its reply on the appeal filed by convict Bhagwani who has challenged the state high court’s May 9 verdict upholding the death penalty awarded to him by the trial court. “There shall be a stay of execution of the death sentence of the petitioner (Bhagwani). Let the original records be called from the high court,” the Bench said.

Besides Bhagwani, the high court had also upheld the death penalty awarded by the trial court to another convict Satish in the case. According to the police, both of them had raped the minor girl, who was residing in their village along with her family, during the intervening night of April 14-15 last year and then killed her. The girl had gone to attend a ceremony in the village along with her parents on April 14 last year and went missing from there, the police had said, adding that her body was recovered the next morning.

The police had said during the probe, it was found that the duo, who was initially absconding from the village, had a verbal altercation with the victim’s father a day prior to the incident. Both of them were later arrested and the trial court awarded death sentence to them. They had denied the charges against them. The capital punishment was confirmed by the high court which had taken note of the “alarming increase” in the incidents of child rape and rising anger in the society over such offences across the country. — PTI

Source: https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/sc-stays-execution-of-death-row-convict-in-rape-cum-murder-case/595814.html (Accessed 24 December 2018)

SC Stays Execution Of Death Sentence - Rape And Murder Of 3-Year-Old Girl (Chhattisgarh)

BY: ASHOK K.M APRIL 6, 2018 11:51 AM

The gullibility and vulnerability of a 3-year-old girl, who could not have nurtured any idea about the maladroitly designed biological desires of this nature, accompanied the accused who extinguished her life spark, the high court had observed. The Supreme Court has stayed the execution of the death sentence of a man accused of rape and murder of a 3-year-old girl. 

The Chhattisgarh High Court had dismissed the appeal filed by the accused who was found guilty by the trial court. It had also confirmed the death sentence awarded to him. In this case, after the girl went missing, the accused, Lochan Shrivas, himself claimed that he can trace the whereabouts of the girl within an within an hour by performing pooja and the parents of victim girl approached him and asked him to perform pooja and also provided him material required for performing pooja. After pooja, he informed them that the girl is packed in a gunny bag lying in the bushes near the pole at Amlibhauna. This made them suspect the accused and later the police registered the case. During interrogation, he spelt out details of the crime and later he was chargesheeted and convicted by the trial court.

While confirming the death sentence, the high court had observed: “The appellant’s conduct exhibits total disregard for human values and shows a totally depraved, brutal and scheming mind taking advantage of helplessness of a child, who had only seen three springs of life.” The division bench had also observed: “Life of a girl was taken away in a gruesome and barbaric manner which pricks not only the judicial conscience but also the conscience of the society. The crime in question was not committed under any mental stress or emotional disturbance and therefore it is difficult to comprehend that he would not commit such acts and would be reformed or rehabilitated.” The bench headed by the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, granting leave to appeal, also directed the Registry to call for the records.

Source: https://www.livelaw.in/sc-stays-execution-death-sentence-man-accused-rape-murder-3-year-old-girl-read-order/ (Accessed 24 December 2018)

27 Years On Death Row: SC Stays Execution (Uttar Pradesh)

BY: ASHOK K.M APRIL 3, 2018 1:50 PM 

The Supreme Court has stayed the execution of death sentence awarded to a court-martialed Army Man on his wife plea that he has been languishing in jail without parole for 27 years. Lance Naik Devendra Nath Rai was sentenced to death in court-martial proceedings, finding him guilty of the murder of two Army personnel and for attempting murder of two others. After the Central Government confirmed the order, he moved the Allahabad High Court which did not interfere in the conviction but set aside death penalty holding that the case did not fall in the category of rarest of rare cases. The Union Government and the Army chief moved the Supreme Court, which remitted the case back to the high court, observing that, while deciding the question as to whether the extreme penalty of death sentence is to be awarded, a balance sheet of aggravating and mitigating circumstances has to be drawn up, and that the high court has not done that exercise. 

After the case got remitted back to the high court in 2006, it got dismissed for non-prosecution. Although he filed restoration plea, nothing transpired in the high court, as the files went missing. In 2013, the high court, after it traced the files, transferred the case to the Armed Force Tribunal (AFT) to decide the case of Rai by scrutinising the 1991 findings arrived at by the General Court Martial (GCM). The tribunal also dismissed the case for non-prosecution in 2015. As per reports, the Army man’s wife had prayed before the apex court to quash the 1991 order of death sentence passed by the General Court Martial. She has also sought his release after awarding the jail term already undergone by him. The bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, staying the execution, has issued a notice to the Union Government and the Army chief. 

Source: https://www.livelaw.in/27-years-death-row-sc-stays-execution-death-sentence-court-martialed-army-man-wifes-plea-read-order/ (Accessed 24 December 2018)

SC Stays Execution Of Death Sentence Of Man Convicted Of Rape & Murder Of 6-Yr-Old Girl (Uttar Pradesh)

BY: ASHOK KM MARCH 7, 2018 2:50 PM 

The Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra has stayed execution of the death sentence of a man convicted for rape and murder of a 6-year-old girl. Chotkau was convicted by the trial court for rape and murder of a 6-year-old girl. The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court had affirmed the conviction and confirmed the death sentence awarded to him. While confirming the capital sentence, the bench had observed: “A girl of six years was brutally murdered to satiate the abnormal sexual urge of the appellant. His depravity has not ended only by raping a female child but it extended to committing her murder in a very brutal manner.” 

The bench had further observed: “It must have torn the hearts of the parents of the deceased and residents of the village. In such cases leniency by the Court would send wrong message in the society, such type of cases deserves exemplary punishment, so that persons of deviant behaviour may choose not to do so. We are of the view that this case is rarest of the rare, a young age man i.e. 25 years of the offender is no mitigating circumstance. When by his deviant behaviour and abnormal sexual urge, he has forfeited his right to alive in the society, we think death sentence is the only punishment which can be awarded to him.”...

Source: https://www.livelaw.in/sc-stays-execution-of-death-sentence-of-man-convicted-of-rape-murder-of-6-yr-old-girl/ (Accessed 24 December 2018)

SC Stays Execution Of Death Sentence Awarded To Man Convicted For Murder Of Five ‘Sleeping’ Persons, Including A Minor (Karnataka)

BY: ASHOK K.M JANUARY 24, 2018 11:58 AM

The Supreme Court has stayed the execution of death sentence awarded to one Murugeshan in a murder case. 

Murugeshan was found guilty by the trial court for murdering five persons, including an 8-year-old kid. The prosecution case is that the accused using a chopper, murdered five persons who were sleeping in a hut. The deceased include a minor child of eight years. “He has butchered five innocent people who were sleeping, including the child aged about eight years. He is a hardened criminal. He has no heart or any emotion. He is nothing but a maniac,” the Karnataka High court bench said while confirming the death sentence imposed on him by the trial court.

Murugeshan

The bench had further observed: “He was not a child or an old person to whom sympathy could be shown. It was a pre-planned, cold blooded brutal murder, of 5 persons. Based on his past history and the pending sessions case, there is absolutely no change of reformation and rehabilitation.” Affirming the death penalty, the bench had observed: “The accused has committed the murder of five innocent people. All five of them were asleep. He has butchered them without any emotion at all. The innocent deceased were just sleeping. There was not even an opposition by them. 

He has committed the murder of five people, one after the other. Even though murder by itself is uncommon, the murder of five people continuously shocks the conscience of this Court. The previous history and yet another pending sessions case would show that he is a hardened criminal. For such offences, a sentence of life is wholly inadequate. In the circumstances, even after according maximum weightage to the mitigating circumstances, there is no other alternate, but to impose a death sentence.” In a special leave petition preferred by Murugeshan, the apex court bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra has now stayed execution of death sentence.

Source: https://www.livelaw.in/sc-stays-execution-death-sentence-awarded-man-convicted-murder-five-sleeping-persons-including-minor-read-order/ (Accessed 24 December 2018)

HC stays death sentence of serial killer Umesh Reddy (Karnataka)

Bengaluru | Thursday, Oct 20 2016 IST

Karnataka High Court today stayed execution of the death sentence awarded to serial killer and rapist Umesh Reddy. 

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice S K Mukherjee and Justice Budihal, directed the Union and the State Governments to file their objections, if any on the petition filed by Mr Umesh Reddy,within 10 days. Umesh Reddy's Advocate Prof Ravikumar in his application had sought a stay on the death sentence stating that the delay to act on his mercy petition by the President for more than two years hadcreated mental agony to his client who was expecting decision in his favour.

A former Jawan of the CRPF and later the State Armed ReservePolice, Umesh had been accused of killing 18 women and raping 20 women across Karnataka, Maharasthra and Gujarat. He was, however,convicted in only nine cases, one of them being the rape and murder of Jayashree Subbaiah, a housewife in Peenya in 1998. He was,however, acquitted in 11 cases due to lack of evidence. On October 26, 2006, Judge K Sukanya of the Bangalore city Fast Track Court ordered multiple sentences, including a death sentence,a seven-year sentence, Rs 25,000 fine and a 10-year sentence plus Rs 25,000 fine.

Umesh Reddy

In November 1996, Umesh had attempted to rape a high school girl in Chitradurga. The girl managed to escape by hitting him with astone. A month later he raped and murdered 16-year-old Roopa in Chitradurga. In January, 1997, the girl he attempted to rape identified him at a Republic Day police parade and he was then arrested and dismissed from service. A court ordered that he be shifted to Ballari jail fromChitradurga. Umesh managed to escape from police custody while hewas being handed over to Ballari jail. After his escape, he killed an income tax officer's wife in Bengaluru, a girl in Ahmedabad, two girls in Vadodara, and a widow in Kunigal, Tumakuru district. Umesh managed to escape from police custody six times. After the trial, he was awarded the death sentence by a fast track court in Bengaluru in 2006. His appeals were dismissed by the High Court as well as Supreme Court.

Source: https://news.webindia123.com/news/Articles/India/20161020/2973634.html (Accessed 20 December 2018)