‘Every life precious’: 24-year-old rape, murder convict gets 50 years in jail, fined Rs 73 lakh

“Every life, whether of young or old, of rich or poor, of citizen or an alien, is equally precious and its loss is irreparable, and no one has the right to take it away except by following the due process of law with extreme care- Compulsive retribution by the State, without justifying due process of law, cannot immunize such acts, even when done in the name of the greater public good…to ensure that this pervert is not a potential risk to the other girls, he must remain in prison till the sunset of his virility,” the court said on August 11.

The case arose from an October 8, 2022 incident involving a seven-year-old girl who went missing after stepping out to play. Her partially burnt body was recovered the following day from an isolated area. The trial court convicted the man of rape and murder, besides kidnapping, abduction and destruction of evidence, and sentenced him to death.

Justices Anoop Chitkara and Ramesh Chander Dimri said the irreversible nature of the death penalty demands greater scrutiny. (Image enhanced using AI)

Conviction upheld

The high court examined the prosecution evidence and found that the CCTV footage relied upon by the prosecution could not be treated as admissible evidence because of deficiencies in proving the electronic record under Section 65-B of the Indian Evidence Act. The conviction, however, did not depend on the CCTV evidence alone.

The bench found that evidence of a witness who had seen the man with the child shortly before her disappearance established the “last seen” circumstance. The court then considered the forensic evidence connecting him to the sexual assault.

“The fact that accused the man had committed a penetrative sexual assault with the victim is established by Laadli’s postmortem report and is confirmed by the DNA evidence,” the court said. It also found that the prosecution had established the chain of custody of the samples. “The chain of custody stands proved; there is no gap in the link evidence,” the bench said.

According to the judgment, human semen recovered from the victim’s clothes matched the man’s blood sample. The court considered this scientific evidence along with the evidence that he was last seen with the child.

The court consequently upheld his conviction under Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, which deals with aggravated penetrative sexual assault, and Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which deals with murder, besides Sections 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine a person), 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing a woman to compel her marriage or illicit intercourse), 376-AB (punishment for rape of a woman under 12 years of age) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of the IPC.

Court examines death penalty

After upholding the conviction, the bench considered whether the circumstances justified the extreme penalty of death. It examined Supreme Court precedents where death sentences in cases involving rape and murder of minor girls had been commuted to life imprisonment.

The court also considered the psychological and sociological assessment placed before it. The report recorded “No active Psychopathology”, an IQ of 94 and no evidence of intellectual disability or cognitive impairment. It also stated that Pawan was mentally fit to understand court proceedings.

Examining the circumstances surrounding the murder, the bench observed, “It appears that the subsequent act of murder was committed in the aftermath of panic to destroy the evidence of rape, rather than a premeditated act.”

The court then applied the “rarest of rare” test to the facts before it. “Though we acknowledge the gravity of the offence, we are unable to satisfy ourselves that this case would fall in the category of ‘rarest of rare case’ warranting the death sentence,” it said.

On sentencing in cases involving rape of minor victims, the court said, “The lower the victim’s age, the higher the sentence; graver the cruelty, harsher the sentence; and more the number of perpetrators, severer the sentence.”

The court noted that Laadli was around seven years and seven months old and that there was a single perpetrator. It held that the appropriate sentence for the POCSO offence was 23 years of rigorous imprisonment.

Death sentence replaced with minimum 50-year life term

The high court commuted the death sentence under Section 302 IPC to rigorous imprisonment for life, clarifying that Pawan shall not be released unless he has served a minimum actual sentence of 50 years. The fine under Section 302 was enhanced to Rs 50 lakh, to be paid as compensation to the victim’s family after recovery.

The death sentence under Section 6 of the POCSO Act was separately commuted to 23 years of rigorous imprisonment, with a fine of Rs 23 lakh, also payable as compensation. The sentences under Sections 365, 366 and 201 IPC were upheld, and all substantive sentences will run concurrently.

The court directed that the compensation recovered from the convict be distributed equally among the surviving parents and siblings of the child. The murder reference was dismissed because the death sentence had been commuted, allowing the man’s criminal appeal partly.