Rapist’s death sentence commuted to life

A division bench comprising Justice S Nagamuthu and Justice N Authinathan, after holding that this case does not fall within the category of rarest of rare case, said “From the records, it is seen that driven by sexual urge, the accused had committed rape and then, probably, with a view to escape, has committed the murder. Having regard to these mitigating circumstances, we are of the view that this is not a fit case to impose death penalty.” 

As per the case, Kamala (28) was residing with her brother at Ramanathapuram village and was working in a medical shop at Vadapathimangalm. She used to return home around 7.30 pm on her bicycle. 

On November 23, 2013, when she was returning home, the accused Manivel intercepted her, dragged her to a field and raped her. When she resisted, he smothered her to death. He tied her body with the cycle and dumped her in a channel nearby. 

When the investigation was in progress, Manivel on his own volition, surrendered before the VAO and confessed to  the crime. Since the case was based on circumstantial evidence as none had witnessed the incident, the trial court based on the examination of 30 witnesses, 35 documents and 17 material objects including DNA extractions convicted and sentenced Manivel to death for rape and murder. 

However, the division bench while holding that the prosecution had proved beyond any doubt that it was Manivel who had waylaid the deceased, raped her  and killed her, scaled down the punishment after accounting for mitigating circumstances like “the accused is a young man, aged 23 years at the time of occurrence. He had no bad antecedents, He is a bachelor.”