Madras High Court commutes death penalty for convict

Chennai: The Madras high court has commuted the death sentence awarded to a convict in a double murder case to life imprisonment, after holding that this case does not fall within the category of rarest of rare cases.

Disposing of the referred trial preferred by the state government to confirm the death sentence and partly allowing an appeal from the accused Rajiv Gandhi alias Marimuthu, a division bench comprising Justices S. Nagamuthu and V. Bharathidasan made it clear that the case of Rajiv Gandhi should not be considered for any remission for 20 years.

On February 11, 2012, Rajiv Gandhi murdered a woman and her daughter and also assaulted another daughter over a land dispute in Sungam village at Pollachi taluk in Coimbatore district.

A case was registered and he was arrested on February 14, 2012. After trial, the IV additional district and sessions judge, Coimbatore, had on March 3, 2016 convicted him and awarded death sentence to him.

Upholding the conviction, the bench said from the medical evidence, it has been clearly established by the prosecution that the death of the two persons was due to injuries caused by this convict. On the quantum of punishment, the bench citing various judgments of the Supreme Court and said that this case does not fall within the rarest of rare doctrine.

But the killing of two women is “brutal and gruesome”, the bench said. There were also some mitigating circumstances in favour of the accused — his age, the fact that the motive was land dispute and the occurrence was preceded by a quarrel.

“We are of the view that so far as the murder of two women is concerned, imprisonment for life would be the adequate punishment. Thus, we find it difficult to confirm the death penalty imposed by the trial court upon the accused,” the bench said.