Dismissing the appeal by Govindachamy, a division bench comprising justices T Ramachandran Nair and B Kemal Pasha, held that "the cruel tendency of the accused and his total disregard for human life is writ large from the manner of attack and the nature of injuries caused on the deceased".
"His conduct and behaviour was 'repulsive to the collective conscience of society. Murder was committed in a most cruel, inhuman, extreme brutal manner. If maximum punishment was not imposed in this rarest of rare cases, court will be failing on its duty", the bench held in its 359-page judgement.
Seeing the victim in the deserted women's compartment, the accused tried to rob her. But when she resisted, he smashed her head against the wall and then pushed her out of the train just as it left Vallathol Nagar station.
Govindachamy also jumped out, carried his seriously injured victim to a deserted area and raped her.
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Soumya, who battled for her life for six days, succumbed to injuries on February 6.
Criticising the attitude of the passengers, the bench held it was "disgustful". Had they offered a helping hand, this untoward incident could have been avoided, it said.
Stressing on the need to create awareness among the public to rise to the occasion, the bench held that "Inaction of fellow passengers was more painful than the brutal action of the accused".
Taking on Indian Railways for its "lukewarm" response, the bench there was no safety in ladies' compartments. Even after the incident, it was at the rear end of the train.
The FTC, which had delivered the judgement in November that year, had held that the brutal rape was one of the reasons for the victim's death and that the nature of the crime as savage and had shocked society.
The prosecution had also pointed out that Govindachamy, hailing from Vridachalam in Tamil Nadu, was a habitual offender and had already been convicted in eight cases in that state.