Delhi High Court today commuted to life imprisonment the death penalty awarded to a youth for raping and brutally killing a three-year-old girl in 2005.
A bench of justices Kailash Gambhir and Indermeet Kaur commuted the death sentence awarded by the trial court in 2010 by relying on mitigating circumstances that convict Mukesh Kumar was a young man of 22 years at the time of offence, the crime was "not preordained or pre-planned", there was no evidence that victim's body was intentionally ripped into two and he did not run away, etc.
"Aforenoted situation persuades us to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment. Death sentence is accordingly commuted to life imprisonment," the bench said while disposing of the death reference of Kumar.
Upholding the conviction of Kumar, the bench refused to grant the prosecution's plea that life imprisonment should mean till the dying breath of the convict, saying "we are not inclined to issue any such direction".
Kumar was convicted and awarded capital punishment by the trial court for raping a three-year-old girl by luring her away on the pretext of giving her sweets and then brutally killing the toddler to cover up his act.
While awarding the death sentence, the trial court had categorised the offence as being rarest of rare by observing that the crime was "committed in a shocking and brutal fashion" as the victim's body had been ripped apart into two.
The High Court took into account the aggravating circumstances that a "hapless and helpless child" was the victim and that she was killed by splitting her body into two, but added that there was no evidence that victim's body was intentionally ripped into two.
"There is no evidence that body was intentionally ripped apart to qualify as a diabolic act," the high court said in its 51-page judgement.
