The Allahabad High Court today confirmed the death sentence awarded by a sessions court to a man for kidnapping, raping and murdering a seven-year-old girl and termed it as a "rarest of rare case".
Dismissing an appeal filed by accused Pappu, a division bench of justices Shashi Kant Gupta and Prabhat Chandra Tripathi observed that rape of innocent children is a crime against humanity and in such cases, responsibility on the shoulders of court is more onerous so as to provide legal protection to these children.
On December 8, 2016, the court of additional sessions judge had awarded the death sentence to Pappu.
The bench today observed that the "motivation of the perpetrator, the vulnerability of the victim, the enormity of the crime, the execution thereof persuade us to hold that this is a 'rarest of rare case' where the sentence of death is eminently desirable not only to deter others from committing such atrocious crimes but also to give emphatic expression to society's a abhorrence of such crime".
The court further said, "Records of this case reveal that the accused - appellant Pappu - is a married person. In his statement recorded under Section 313 Criminal Procedure Code, his age has been mentioned as 35 years whereas in the post- mortem report of the deceased girl, her age has been mentioned as seven years.
"This clearly proves that in between the accused person and the victim girl, there was a generation gap. This beastly act of the accused person shakes the confidence of society and tears to shred the warp and woof of the social fabric."
However, while delivering the judgement, the court directed that in compliance with under Section 415 of the CrPC, the execution of the sentence will be postponed until the period allowed for preferring such appeal before the Supreme Court has expired or if an appeal is preferred before the Supreme Court within that period, until such appeal is disposed of by the Supreme Court.
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