SUPREME COURT HAS SET ASIDE A DEATH WARRANT WHERE PERIOD FOR FILING SLP AND SENTENCE PASSED WAS YET TO BE OVER
The Case where it was held that,
Answering
the referred trial by the Principal District and Sessions Judge, Theni against
the accused Kattavellai alias Devakar, a division bench comprising Justices
R.Subbiah and B.Pugalendhi said, “We hold that there can be no doubt that the
entire occurrence resulting in the murder of a young girl will fall within the
rarest of rare category propounded by the Supreme Court. For having committed
such gruesome, inhuman, barbaric and heinous offence, the accused cannot be
imposed with any other punishment other than death sentence and therefore, we
are inclined to confirm the death sentence imposed by the trial court on the
accused”.
The
case of the prosecution was that Ezhil Muthalvan who was pursuing his first B.A
degree at Theni and Kasthuri, who was pursuing her B.E loved each other. On May
14, 2011, they went to Surti falls and while they were sitting, the accused
threatened them with aruval and demanded that the jewels worn by her be
entrusted to him. When Ezhil resisted the accused cut his both side next with
aruval and murdered him. When Kasthuri attempt to flee away, the accused chased
her, gagged her nose and mouth with a towel and made her to suffocate.
Thereafter, the accused forcibly raped her besides he cut her hands and legs
brutally, which resulted in her death.
After
that, he robbed her gold chain, handbag and them fled away from the scene of
occurrence.
State
Public Prosecutor A.Natarajan submitted that it was a case of circumstantial
evidence, however, all the circumstances projected by the prosecution were
proved without any missing links.
They
were, missing of the deceased person, death of the deceased was homicidal, last
seen theory, test identification parade, rape by the accused and motive and
recovery of gold jewels and weapon and DNA test report confirming that the
blood samples of the accused matches the vaginal swab test of the girl.
Concurring
with his submissions, the bench said the circumstances projected by the
prosecution, in its considered opinion, formed a complete chain and it
unerringly pointed towards the guilt of the accused. "We firmly hold that
the offences were committed by none other than the accused in this case. There
is no controversy that the murders of the boy and girl and the robbery and rape
of girl ad taken place in one and the same occurrence. Therefore, the person,
who committed the robbery and rape, had committed the murders of the boy and
girl as well. From the recovery of the stolen articles, and the DNA
reports, the presumption under the provisions of the Evidence Act clearly goes
in favour of the prosecution. The said legal presumption also duly corroborates
the other evidences so as to hold that this accused alone committed the murder
of the boy and robbery, rape and murder of the girl, the bench added.
[source: DECCAN CHRONICLE.
Published
Mar 14, 2019]
A three judges bench
comprising CJI Gogoi, Justice Gupta, Justice Khanna had passed the order in
case titled KATTAVELLAI @ DEVAKAR vs STATE OF TAMIL NADU (above case) on
16.04.2019.
It was that the person
has to be given an opportunity in
exhausting the remedies available to him in law, filed a petition under Article
32 of the Constitution before the Supreme Court.
[ The Supreme Court observed and held as “Be that as it may, as the period for filing of a special leave
petition/an appeal against the order of conviction and sentence passed is yet
to be over, we are of the view that the warrant for execution of death
sentence, dated 27.3.2019, is contrary to the law laid down by this Court in
Shabnam vs. Union of India & Ors., (2015) 6 SCC 702. Accordingly, we deem
it proper, without issuing any notice, to set aside the said warrant of
execution of death sentence and allow this petition under Article 32 of the
Constitution”.]
READ JUDGMENT:
MANISHANKAR
CEO-ANTI-CORRUPTION AND HUMAN RIGHTS MOVEMENT®-CHENNAI
Email: anticorruption.org2007@
Mobile: 91 9087856137
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