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The Supreme Court bench which comprised of Justice SA Bobde, Justice L.Nageswara Rao and Justice R.Subash Reddy stated that only when the alternative option is unquestionably foreclosed a death sentence can be imposed even if there is brutality in committed murder or involves exceptional depravity. The Court has commuted the death penalty and sentenced imprisonment of 30 years without any remission of the man who was accused of rape and murder of a 9 years old girl.
The Trial Court after finding that Raju Jagdish Paswan has raped and killed a nine-year-old girl by pushing her into a well has imposed a death penalty. There was deposition made by the doctors before the Trial Court that there were vaginal evidence, anal intercourse and the death was caused due to drowning. High Court confirmed the death sentence observing there can be seen no regret after committing such heinous offense on a child. The Apex court granted only to see how much justifiable his death penalty is and noted down the mitigating situations which make a hold showing that the case doesn’t come under rarest of rare case ambit.
There was no evidence that the murder was pre-planned, no evidence to show that appellant cannot be reformed or rehabilitated and there was no evidence which state that the accused would commit further crime and is no threat to society. Adding to that accused was a 22-year young man.
Justice Nageswara Rao also referred in his judgment the judgment of United States where he observed that though punishment should be proportionate to the offense, for a civilized jurisprudence a savage sentence is an anathema.
Justice Rao quoting passages from books authored by Tom Bingham and Bruce W.Gilchrist stated that: “One of the oldest functions of civil society is the maintenance of peace, order, and security. Whoever infringes the rules for which the society is bound has to face the imposition of penal sanctions as they are a matter of legitimate interest to the society members. For an offender, punishment is the just desert. The society doesn’t punish an offender just that it has moral right to give them what they deserve but because this punishment will lead to social welfare as it would protect from incapacitating criminals, rehabilitation of past offenders or the deterrence of potential wrongdoers. The word incapacitation (putting it out of the power of the offender to commit further offenses) was added and even the maintenance of public confidence.”
The court while commuting the sentence to life imprisonment has added: “The Appellant’s brutal sexual assault on the victim and her murder compels us to hold the release of Appellant after the tenure of 14years which would not be right in the society also. Considering the gravity of the offense and manner in which it was done, we are of opinion that for a tenure of 30 years of imprisonment is deserved to be incarcerated by the Appellant.
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