Don’t show rapists mercy, says Supreme Court

New Delhi: Taking a cue from the rape of a working girl by a Uber cab driver in the capital, the Supreme Court has called upon trial and High Courts not to show any undue sympathy and award exemplary punishment to convicts in such cases.

A Bench of Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and Justices S.A. Bobde and Arun Mishra upheld an order of the Bombay High Court that awarded the death sentence to a cab driver — Purushottam Dashrath Borate — and his accomplice for the rape and murder of an girl in Pune.

The court said: “It would be necessary for this court to notice the impact of the crime on the community and particularly women working in night shifts at Pune, which is considered as a hub of information technology.”

The girl who was on her way to office for the night shift was picked up by a cab. en route to her office, she was abducted and raped by the cab driver and his accomplice, and later killed. The trial court awarded the death penalty to the duo and this was confirmed by the Bombay HC.

Chief Justice Dattu said, “In recent years, the rising crime rate, particularly violent crimes against women, has made the criminal sentencing by the courts a subject of concern.  The sentencing policy adopted by the courts, in such cases, ought to have a stricter yardstick so as to act as a deterrent. There are a shockingly large number of cases where the sentence of punishment awarded to the accused is not in proportion to the gravity and magnitude of the offence thereby encouraging the criminal and in the ultimate making justice suffer by weakening the system’s credibility. The object of sentencing should be to see that the crime does not go unpunished.”