Rape & murder of 4-yr-old;SC rejects pleas for review of commutation of death penalty into life term

The Supreme Court has dismissed a plea of a mother seeking review of its decision by which it had commuted the death penalty into life imprisonment of a man convicted for the brutal rape and murder of her four-year-old daughter.

A bench comprising justices Uday Umesh Lalit, S Ravindra Bhat, and Bela M Trivedi dismissed the review petitions of the mother and an organisation, ‘Bharatiya Stree Shakti’ in the case.

The bench said the decision to commute the death penalty of the convict into a life term was taken after bestowing attention to the relevant factors.

The bench said it considered landmark decisions of the apex court and concluded that it was not appropriate to sustain the sentence of death awarded under Section 302 of the IPC.

''As the discussion..., the legislative policy under Sections 354 (3) and 235 (2) of the CrPC (Code of Criminal Procedure) was noted and the commutation as aforesaid was directed. As the record indicates, even after the conclusion of the hearing, certain material from the Probation Officer and Director General of Prison, Trained Psychiatrists were also called so that the matter about the sentence to be awarded could be considered. ''Thus, the commutation of the sentence of death to that of life imprisonment was done by the Court after bestowing attention to the relevant factors,'' the bench said in its order.

The trial court had awarded the death penalty to convict Firoz in the case and the conviction and the sentence were upheld by the high court.

The top court confirmed the conviction but commuted the death penalty to 20 years imprisonment for raping and killing a four-year-old girl in Madhya Pradesh in 2013.

While sparing convicts from the gallows, the top court had remarked: ''We are reminded of what Oscar Wilde has said – 'The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past and every sinner has a future'.