Coimbatore rape-murder case: SC reconfirms death penalty for convict

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a plea by one Manoharan — a convict in a double murder case involving a 10-year-old girl and her seven-year-old brother — seeking reconsideration of the top court verdict upholding his death sentence.

The murder of the brother and the sister took place in Coimbatore in 2010.

Upholding the death sentence, justices Rohinton Fali Nariman and Surya Kant by majority rejected the Mahoharan’s plea for the review of top court’s August 1 verdict upholding the Madras high court decision confirming the death sentence.

Justice Sanjeev Khanna — the third judge — while concurring with the majority view on conviction, differed on sentencing and favoured life imprisonment instead of death sentence.

Dismissing the review petition, justice Narinan pronouncing the order said, “In view of the majority judgment, the review petitions stand dismissed in entirety.”

Speaking for himself and justice Nariman, justice Surya Kant rejecting the review petition said, “We are of the view that the present offence(s) of the petitioner (Manoharan) are so grave as to shock the conscience of this court and of society and would without doubt amount to rarest of the rare.”

Dismissing the review petition, justice Surya Kant said, “Hence, we find that there exist no grounds to review our judgment upholding conviction and death penalty.”

However, justice Khanna in his dissenting judgment said, “I entirely agree and concur with the reasons” given by justice Surya Kant in dismissing the review petitions upholding the conviction of Manoharan under Sections 302, 376(2)(f) and (g) and 201 of the Indian Penal Code.

However, on the question of sentence, “I do not see any good ground and reasons to review my observations and findings in the minority judgment” pronounced on August 1, 2019.

Recounting the sequence of events starting with the kidnapping of the two minor children, rape of the girl and their murder, justice Surya Kant in the majority judgment said, “The present case is essentially one, where two accused misused societal trust to hold as captive two innocent school-going children, one of whom was brutally raped and sodomised, and thereupon administered poison and finally, drowned by throwing them into a canal.”

Both the girl and her brother were kidnapped on October 29, 2010 from outside a temple in Coimbatore, while they were going to school. Later, they were taken to a isolated place, where the girl was brutally raped.