The Karnataka High Court has upheld the death sentence of three convicts for the gang-rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl, terming the crime “barbaric and inhuman” and falling under the “rarest category”.
HC upholds death sentence of 3 convicts in 2021 gang-rape, murder of 7-year-oldIn a February 6 order, a bench of Justices HP Sandesh and Venkatesh Naik T described the crime as a “demonic” act that shocked the collective conscience of the society and had to be suppressed “with an iron hand”.
The court said that imposing lesser sentences on convicts would send a wrong message to society and the public at large, reduce the gravity of the crime and fail to meet the objectives of deterrence and social condemnation in cases involving brutal sexual violence against children.
According to the order of the trial court, the incident took place in November 2021. The victim’s parents were migrant workers living on the premises of a tile factory on the outskirts of Mangaluru and the three convicts worked in the same premises. They had been planning to rape the victim for months and on the day of the incident, when she was playing outside with her siblings, they lured the victim with some sweets and sweets, took her to a room without CCTV cameras and raped her in turn. When the child screamed, they covered his face and strangled him to death. The convicts, along with the fourth accused, who was absconding during the trial while on bail, then dumped the body in a drain and covered it with bricks.
Confirming the death reference under Section 366 of the Criminal Procedure Code and dismissing the appeal filed by the convicts, the high court said the prosecution had successfully established an unbroken chain of circumstances pointing to their guilt. The bench noted that the evidence on record – including forensic material, CCTV footage, witness testimony and medical evidence – clearly proved “post-crime premeditation, collective participation and attempt to destroy evidence”.
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The court said that after weighing both the aggravating and mitigating factors, it found no meaningful mitigating circumstances except the young age of the accused, which itself was not determinative. Applying the constitutional requirement of respect for human life under Article 21, besides following the principles laid down by the Supreme Court, the high court said that where crimes against children or helpless women are “extraordinarily cruel, inhuman and heinous”, the balance “leans decisively in favor of the death penalty”.
