The Supreme Court on Thursday reaffirmed the death penalty of a convict for “horribly” gang-raping a 10-year-old girl and killing her along with her brother in Coimbatore in 2010 saying the is crime so grave that it shocks the conscience of the court and of society.
“It was not in the spur of the moment or a crime of passion; but craftily planned, meticulously executed and with multiple opportunities to cease and desist,” the top court said.
It rejected all grounds seeking the review of its earlier verdict and said: “The present case is essentially one where two accused misused societal trust to hold as captive two innocent school-going children, one of whom was brutally raped and sodomised, and thereupon administered poison and finally, drowned by throwing them into a canal.”
In a majority judgment of 2:1, a bench of Justice R F Nariman and Surya Kant dismissed the plea filed by the convict Manoharan and said there are no grounds to review the verdict of August 1. Justice Sanjiv Khanna, who was third judge of the bench concurred with the conviction of the convict but differed on the question of sentence and said “I do not see any good ground and reasons to review my observations and findings in the minority judgment”.