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SC upholds death penalty for man who raped and murdered 4-year-old girl

Last Updated 03 May 2017, 13:55 IST
The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea made by a death row convict to review the 2014 judgement awarding him the capital punishment for raping and murdering a four-year-old girl child.

Vasanta Sampat Dupare, lodged in Nagpur central jail, urged the court to reconsider the 2014 judgment. He, through senior advocate Anup Bhambhani, contended, that the mitigating circumstances like chances of his reform, his past records in jail and his age of 47-year at the time of incident in 2008 was not duly considered at the time of sentence. He also contended that his conviction and sentence was pronounced on the same date, without giving him sufficient time.

A three-judge bench presided over by Justice Dipak Misra and comprising Justices R F Nariman and U U Lalit rejected his plea and affirmed the sentence, saying no case is made out to take a different view in the matter.

“We have given anxious consideration to the material on record but find that the aggravating circumstances namely the extreme depravity and the barbaric manner in which the crime was committed and the fact that the victim was a helpless girl of four years clearly outweigh the mitigating circumstances now brought on record,” the bench said.

The apex court had in 2014 dismissed the appeal filed by the petitioner against the Bombay HC judgement of 2012. The HC had confirmed the capital punishment awarded to him by the trial court in Nagpur.

According to the prosecution, the appellant took away the victim, daughter of his acquaintance, on his bicycle on April 3, 2008 in the name of offering her chocolates. He ravished the child at a secluded place and bludgeoned her to death.
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(Published 03 May 2017, 10:44 IST)

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