The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Bench modifies capital punishment order

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Monday, Jan 15, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Bench modifies capital punishment order

Staff Reporter

"Sodomy, murder don't warrant death"

MADURAI: Committing sodomy and murdering a four-year-old boy cannot be termed one of the rare crimes that warrant death sentence, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has ruled.

Modifying the capital punishment imposed by the Virudhunagar Principal Sessions Judge to life imprisonment, a Division Bench comprising Justice D. Murugesan and Justice G. Rajasuria said, "The offence committed by the accused is macabre, gruesome, dastardly, horrible, abnormal, unnatural, blood curdling, hair raising and unduly obnoxious. Yet, this cannot be treated as the rarest of rare offences... in view of a decision of the Honourable Apex Court in Union of India Vs. Devendra Nath Rai reported in 2006."

In the 2006 judgment, the Supreme Court referred to various other decisions passed by it, including the Bachan Singh case and Machhi Singh case, wherein it was held that the death sentence must be imposed only when life imprisonment appeared to be an altogether inadequate punishment.

These cases had culled out a principle that death sentence could be awarded when the collective conscience of the community was so shocked that it would expect the holders of judicial power centre to inflict death penalty. Mr. Justice Rajasuria said he disagreed with the trial court on the punishment imposed.

According to the prosecution, a person at Vagaikulampatti in Virudhunagar kidnapped a nine-year-old boy and his four-year-old brother in November 2003. The younger boy was sodomized and murdered. After throwing the body in a waterbody, the accused took the elder brother to various places and had unnatural sexual intercourse with him until he was arrested in December.

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