HC directs probe into 2nd person in rape, murder of 7-year-old

A division bench comprising Justice PN Prakash and Justice V Sivagnanam refused to dwell on the extra-judicial confession by Santhosh Kumar (32) and said there was no truthfulness in the confession as he has appropriated the entire blame to himself. The convict probably wanted to give a red herring to the police or save his companion, it said. “This is a question which can be answered only in the further investigation that has been ordered by the trial court,” the bench said.

Penning the judgement, Justice Sivagnanam said even if one were to factor in the various embellishments and discrepancies in the evidences as well as the extra-judicial confession, “the fact remains that the scientific evidence in this case has not been successfully assailed and has come out unscathed during cross-examination.”

From a cumulative reading of the evidence, it was of the considered view that the unshaken scientific evidence in this case nailed the appellant from all sides and fully established the hypothesis of his guilt, the bench said. “We have no incertitude in concluding that the appellant and another person had sexually abused the 7-year-old girl. Further, we find that the little girl was subjected to not only vaginal penetration but also oral sex. We say so because in the oral swab and smears, semen and spermatozoa were detected.” However, the bench commuted his death sentence to life after noting that it was satisfied that the case does not come within the category of “rarest of rare cases”. “It has not been demonstrated to us that the appellant was addicted to crime and that he is a menace to society, thereby ruling out any possibility of reformation.

In the facts of this case, we are unable to persuade ourselves to hold that a sentence lesser than the death penalty is completely foreclosed,” the bench held with a rider that the appellant would not be entitled to any statutory remission or commutation until he has completed 25 years of actual imprisonment.

The bench also offered various directions to the DGP for probe and action against police personnel for the shoddy registration of FIR and deliberate confusions. It also sought suitable action against the officer who permitted the media to have free access to the place of occurrence. The crime happened in Melchithiraichavadi village in Uliyampalayam, Coimbatore, in 2019.