SC confirms death penalty to man for rape and murder of minor girl

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday confirmed the death penalty given to a man for the rape and murder of a seven-and-a-half-year-old mentally and physically challenged girl, saying the crime has been of extreme depravity and shocks the conscience.

A three-judge bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and C.T. Ravikumar upheld the Rajasthan High Court's May 29, 2015 order of death sentence.

In the case of the present nature, the crime had been of extreme depravity, which shocks the conscience, particularly looking to the target (a seven-and-a-half-year old mentally and physically challenged girl) and then, looking to the manner of committing murder, where the hapless victim's head was literally smashed, resulting in multiple injuries including fracture of frontal bone, the bench said.

The High Court had said the case falls within the category of the rarest of rare cases and had upheld the judgment passed by the sessions court.

In our opinion, the judgment passed by the sessions court suffers from no error, the high court had said. The man had kidnapped, raped and murdered the girl on January 17, 2013.