Karnataka High Court upholds death penalty in child’s ‘barbaric’ gang-rape, murder: ‘To be curbed with iron hands’

The order emphasised that if a lesser sentence is imposed, it will give a wrong message to society and the public at large, and this act of subjecting the minor girl to satisfy their lust would be encouraged and such an act has to be curbed with iron hands.

The court added that, in the facts and the circumstances of the case, the accused believed that he was morally justified in committing the offence.

Background

• The incident occurred in 2021 in Mangaluru.
• According to the prosecution, the accused conspired and lured the seven-year-old survivor by offering her snacks and coins.
• They took her to an isolated place where they subjected her to sexual assault, and one of the accused strangled her to death.
• To conceal the crime, they hid her body in a drainage pipe covered by a stone slab.
• After the trial, the sessions court had sentenced the three men to death.

Court’s findings

• It is a clear case of homicide and subjecting the child to sexual acts, that too by a group of persons, i.e., the accused persons.
• The accused persons were present in the very same vicinity, and it was pre-planned to have forcible sexual intercourse with the child, knowing well that she was below the age of 12.
• It is a case of gang rape, and all the accused, with an intention to satisfy their lust, had an eye on the girl, who is aged about seven years seven months, wherein strict punishment is provided in view of the amendment made to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
• The condition of the accused shows that he was mentally defective, and the defect impaired his capacity to appreciate the circumstances of his criminal conduct.
• The offence was committed with the intention to create a fear psychosis in the public at large and was committed in a public place by a weapon or device which clearly could be hazardous to the life of more than one person.
• The crime was not committed in a preordained manner, and the death resulted in the course of commission of another crime, and there was a possibility of it being construed as a consequence of the commission of the primary crime.
• The accused persons forcibly committed the sexual act on the survivor, which is a brutal act, and even took the life of the survivor and threw the dead body in the drainage to screen the evidence.
• The court has to take note of human values while imposing the death sentence, as discussed in relation to Article 21 of the Constitution in the case of Manoj Pratap Singh v State of Rajasthan.
• The trial court has taken note of all these matters into consideration, and such an act was done against a minor girl aged about seven years and seven months, and it is nothing but a crime against society at large.