Supreme Court stays death sentence of convict in Pudukkottai rape and murder of 7-year-old

The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the death sentence imposed on a flower-seller convicted for the rape and murder of a minor in 2020 in Tamil Nadu's Pudukkottai [Samivel @ Raja vs State of Tamil Nadu].

A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala also sought the response of the Tamil Nadu government in the matter.

The top court also allowed a representative of anti-death penalty body, Project 39A of National Law University, Delhi, to visit the convict to conduct a psychological assessment relevant to his sentencing.

The judges, in consonace with its decision in Manoj vs Madhya Pradesh also issued the following directions:

- The respondent-State shall submit before the Court the report(s) of all the Probation Officers relating to the appellant within a period of eight weeks;

- The Superintendent of the Trichy Central Jail shall submit a report in regard to the nature of work which has been performed by the appellant while in jail and a report with regard to the conduct and behaviour of the appellant while in jail within a period of eight weeks;

- The head of Psychiatry Department at Madurai Medical College shall constitute a suitable team for the purpose of carrying out a psychological evaluation of the appellant. The report of the evaluation shall be submitted to the Court through the Standing Counsel for the State of Tamil Nadu within a period of eight weeks; and

- Ms Katherine Deborah Joy is permitted to have access to the appellant who is presently lodged in Trichy Central Jail to submit its report in regard to the psychological assessment of the appellant.

Senior Advocate Aditya Sondhi appeared for the petitioner.

The appellant was convicted for the rape and murder of a 7-year-old Dalit child in 2020, killed after penetrative sexual assault.

The accused had, purportedly, developed friendship with the child before committing sexual assault on her. Acting on the fear that the child would tell someone about the offence, the accused had then dashed her head against a tree and threw the body into a dry pond.

The trial court had found the accused guilty and sentenced him to death by hanging.

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court had in January upheld the death penalty handed down by Sessions Judge, Pudukkottai, in the case under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act).

A bench of Justices S Vaidyanathan and G Jayachandran stressed that if a person like the accused is allowed to survive in the world, he would "pollute the minds of co-prisoners on the verge of release."

The High Court had held that the presumption in this case stood against the accused since Section 29 of the POCSO Act fastened a statutory presumption on the accused.

The bench had rejected the contention of the accused regarding the delay in lodging a first information report (FIR), reasoning that it was quite natural to search for a missing person at all probable places and only after ascertaining that the missing person was not traceable would one think of lodging a police complaint.

The appeal was filed through advocate Srishti Agnihotri, and advocates Harini Raghupathy, Aishwarya Saranga, and Sanjana Grace Thomas also represented the petitioner.

[Read order]