The Hindu : Front Page : Death sentence of Manohar commuted

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Saturday, Oct 08, 2005

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Death sentence of Manohar commuted

Legal Correspondent

High Court awards life term to Manohar for killing classmate

A file photo of Manohar.

HYDERABAD: The death penalty imposed on Manohar by a Vijayawada court, which found him guilty of murdering his classmate Srilakshmi in a college has been commuted to life imprisonment.

A Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, which was delivering the judgment on Friday in an appeal filed by Manohar as also a reference made to the High Court to confirm the death penalty, said: "It is not as if the accused person had to be killed inevitably for the sake of self-preservation of society."

Manohar was charged with killing Srilakshmi, an MCA student, when she did not respond to his overtures in June last year. A major manhunt was launched for Manohar who finally surrendered to the police in Chennai. A criminal court at Vijayawada sentenced him to undergo death penalty and referred the matter to the High Court for confirmation of the sentence. Manohar filed an appeal and the two were heard together and the common judgment was delivered.

The bench comprising Justice J. Chalameswar and Justice M. Venkateswara Reddy said that young minds were prone to violence, which is order of the day. The bench gave some guidelines when such cases were tried.

The court said that the Public Prosecutor at the time of delivering judgment had to argue as to how the death penalty must be given and he should give reasons.

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