Not rarest of rare case, says Madras High Court

Chennai: The Madras high court has commuted the death sentence awarded by the lower court into one of  life imprisonment. The Bench disposed of the referred trial from the lower court for confirmation of its order, awarding death penalty, and an appeal from the accused challenging the order of the lower court.

According to prosecution, on a complaint from his aunt that the youth attempted to misbehave with her by making sexual advances, his father had reprimanded him. This led to enmity between him and uncle and aunt. There were frequent quarrels  between them. On January 10, 2012, when his uncle was away, the youth went to his house and killed his aunt and her two children. Applying the yardsticks set out by Supreme Court to find whether this case falls within the category of rarest of rare case, the Bench said, “We find that this is not such a case falling within the said category”. In this case, there were a lot of mitigating circumstances. The conviction in this case was based on circumstantial evidence, the Bench said.