Supreme Court: “Convict Was a Minor When He Allegedly Raped & Murdered 10-year-Old Girl In UP, Allowed Him To Walk Free”

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Initially, the trial court sentenced the convict to death on May 17, 2018. However, the Allahabad High Court’s Lucknow bench later commuted the death penalty to life imprisonment without the possibility of remission.

New Delhi, Jan 2: The Supreme Court on Thursday (2nd Dec) acknowledged a report confirming that a convict in a 2013 rape and murder case in Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh, was a minor at the time of the crime and ordered his release.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar upheld the conviction but annulled the life sentence imposed by the Allahabad High Court.

Initially, the trial court had sentenced the convict to death on May 17, 2018. However, the Allahabad High Court’s Lucknow bench later commuted the death penalty to life imprisonment without the possibility of remission.

The Supreme Court, while hearing the appeals, directed the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) in Faizabad to verify the convict’s age. The JJB’s report confirmed that the convict, born on July 5, 1995, was under 18 on the date of the crime, January 1, 2013.

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“The counsel for the state of Uttar Pradesh does not dispute the JJB’s report. Upon reviewing the findings, we find no reason to differ. The appellant is to be treated as a juvenile at the time of the offence,”

the bench ruled.

The convict, who had already spent over a decade in jail, was ordered to be released unless detained for any other legal matter.

The case dates back to January 29, 2013, when a 10-year-old girl failed to return home from school. Her body was later found in a sugarcane field, with evidence pointing to sexual assault and strangulation. Following the FIR lodged by her uncle, the convict was arrested during the investigation.

While upholding the conviction, the Allahabad High Court had examined whether the crime met the “rarest of the rare” threshold for the death penalty. The court emphasized that life imprisonment is the norm, while the death sentence is an exception. Despite the heinous nature of the crime, it ruled that capital punishment was not justified in this case.

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