The Supreme Court on Thursday made a departure from the usual practice by agreeing to hear in open court a set of review petitions that questioned setting aside death sentence of a rapist who was accused of rape and murder of a 23-year old girl Soumya in Kerala.
The crime that occurred on February 1, 2011 had shocked an entire State as the accused Govindasamy tried to molest the girl on a moving local train and later pushed her out in a bid to ravish her. As she lay wreathing in pain, the accused raped her and even robbed her valuables. The police arrested him later but the girl died three days later due to deep wounds sustained during the fall.
On September 15 came the Supreme Court verdict holding Govindasamy guilty of rape but not of murder. As a result, the life sentence awarded to him under IPC Section 376 (rape) was sustained but the punishment of death as a consequence of his conviction under IPC Section 302 (murder) was set aside. The verdict shocked the victim’s family and evoked outrage forcing the State to file a review petition as the Opposition piled the blame on the prosecution’s inefficiency to argue the case in court.
On Thursday, Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar appeared for Kerala and submitted that an extraordinary situation had arisen as successive verdicts of the trial court and Kerala High Court upholding the death sentence of the accused had been set aside by a three-judge bench of the apex court. Kumar requested a bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi to hear the State’s review plea in open court. The bench agreed and posted the case for hearing on Friday. Even the appeal of the victim’s mother will be heard.
The apex bench of Justices Gogoi, PC Pant and UU lalit, in its order of September 15 had noted that though rape was clearly established against the accused, it was difficult to hold him guilty for murder as the death of victim took place three days after the incident. Moreover, there was no proof to establish that the victim was pushed from the train by the accused.