<p>The Supreme Court has commuted the death penalty awarded to a middle-aged man for repeated rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl with moderate intellectual disability to life term, even after holding that his crime could satisfy the test of rarest of rare.<br /><br /></p>.<p>A bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Madan B Lokur modified the Bombay High Court verdict – which had confirmed the capital punishment given to Shankar Kisanrao Khade (52) – finding that the high court had treated two pending cases, including one relating to murder of the convict’s first wife, as one of the aggravating factors against him.<br />Though the bench described the offence as “barbaric and inhuman” and also concluded that the case fulfilled the test of “rarest of rare (R-R)” earlier laid down by the apex court, it did not prefer to send the man to gallows.<br /><br />“R-R test is fully satisfied against the accused, so also the crime test and the criminal test. Even though all the above mentioned tests have been satisfied in this case, I am of the view that the extreme sentence of death penalty is not warranted since one of the factors which influenced the high court to award death sentence was the previous track record of the accused,” Justice Radhakrishnan, writing the verdict, said. <br />The verdict has come at a time when there has been growing demand to award death penalty in such cases.<br /><br />In the instant case, the court said: “Ruthless crime of repeated actions of rape followed by murder of a young minor girl who was having moderate intellectual disability, shocks not only the judicial conscience, but the conscience of the society.”<br /><br />Khade, along with his wife, kidnapped the victim in July, 2006. He repeatedly raped her. The couple then took her to a friend’s place. Khade again indulged in sexual assault. His friend, however, caught the accused and strongly objected to his act. The accused then strangled the victim after taking her to a secluded place on a cycle in Washim in Maharashtra. <br /><br />The trial court awarded him death penalty. His wife was held guilty of kidnapping only and sentenced to five year imprisonment. After going through details, the court noted a “disturbing trend in our society that is non-reporting of sexual assault on minor children” which has happened in this case as well. Had accused’s friend Ravindra Lavate reported the incident of rape then, the life of victim could have been saved.”<br /></p>
<p>The Supreme Court has commuted the death penalty awarded to a middle-aged man for repeated rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl with moderate intellectual disability to life term, even after holding that his crime could satisfy the test of rarest of rare.<br /><br /></p>.<p>A bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Madan B Lokur modified the Bombay High Court verdict – which had confirmed the capital punishment given to Shankar Kisanrao Khade (52) – finding that the high court had treated two pending cases, including one relating to murder of the convict’s first wife, as one of the aggravating factors against him.<br />Though the bench described the offence as “barbaric and inhuman” and also concluded that the case fulfilled the test of “rarest of rare (R-R)” earlier laid down by the apex court, it did not prefer to send the man to gallows.<br /><br />“R-R test is fully satisfied against the accused, so also the crime test and the criminal test. Even though all the above mentioned tests have been satisfied in this case, I am of the view that the extreme sentence of death penalty is not warranted since one of the factors which influenced the high court to award death sentence was the previous track record of the accused,” Justice Radhakrishnan, writing the verdict, said. <br />The verdict has come at a time when there has been growing demand to award death penalty in such cases.<br /><br />In the instant case, the court said: “Ruthless crime of repeated actions of rape followed by murder of a young minor girl who was having moderate intellectual disability, shocks not only the judicial conscience, but the conscience of the society.”<br /><br />Khade, along with his wife, kidnapped the victim in July, 2006. He repeatedly raped her. The couple then took her to a friend’s place. Khade again indulged in sexual assault. His friend, however, caught the accused and strongly objected to his act. The accused then strangled the victim after taking her to a secluded place on a cycle in Washim in Maharashtra. <br /><br />The trial court awarded him death penalty. His wife was held guilty of kidnapping only and sentenced to five year imprisonment. After going through details, the court noted a “disturbing trend in our society that is non-reporting of sexual assault on minor children” which has happened in this case as well. Had accused’s friend Ravindra Lavate reported the incident of rape then, the life of victim could have been saved.”<br /></p>
