In a surprising move, Govindachamy, a one-armed Tamil Nadu native who was sentenced to death by a court in Thrissur, Kerala for raping and murdering 23-year-old Soumya after pushing her out of a running train in February, 2011, has requested the Kerala HC to hear his appeal in his presence. This was the first time such a plea had come up before the High Court.
The final arguments on the appeal filed by the rapist through his lawyer BA Aloor began on Saturday before the bench of Justices TR Ramachandran Nair and B Kemal Pasha, who were also looking into the death sentence. The lawyer also wanted the judges to conduct examination of the crime spot identified by the Prosecution.
The Fast Track Court in Thrissur had sentenced Govindachamy, identified as a habitual criminal who earned his livelihood through begging and thefts, to death on November 11, 2011 after an expeditious trial that started on June 6 that year. As per the verdict of Judge Raveendra Babu, the death sentence was to be executed with the approval of the High Court.
The lawyer justified the demand for hearing the appeal in his presence of Govindachamy by pointing out that such a procedure had been adopted in the case of Ajmal Kasab and the German Bakery case. He also claimed that the Delhi HC was hearing the appeals of the accused in the December 16 rape-murder case in their presence.
Aloor said that in all these cases, the accused had got the opportunity to observe the proceedings through video-conferencing facility. The division bench, constituted for hearing cases relating to atrocities against women, said such requests could be considered if necessary at the stage of detailed hearing.