CHENNAI: Recurrence of brutal murder of young girls, either out of sexual obsession or failure of love or for any other reason will tend to create a sense of insecurity among womenfolk. To check recurrence of these kinds of heinous crime, police and other authorities should act with an iron hand, the Madras high court has said while confirming the life sentence awarded to an accused, who threw acid on Vinodhini, a techie in 2012 at Puducherry, leading to her death after 90 days.
A Division Bench comprising Justices S.Nagamuthu and V.Bharathidasan which made the observation said, “After the hearing of this appeal (filed by the accused) was over on June 21, 2016, this court reserved the case for judgment. But, even before we could sit to write this judgment, we have heard of a similar incident, where yet another girl — Miss Swathi aged 24 years, a software engineer, has fallen a victim of a brutal attack in the Nungambakkam railway station in broad daylight within the public view”.
The court said, “We are aware that there are criticisms about the deterrent theory of punishment. But, that will not deter our belief that the story of ‘Vinodhini” shall be at least a lesson and deterrence for those who may have a semblance of feeling to commit such gruesome acts against the womenfolk”. Passing orders on an appeal filed by the accused Suresh Kumar alias Appu, the bench said the fine of Rs 1 lakh imposed by the trial court, on collection, should be paid to the father of Vinodhini as compensation. In addition, Rs 3 lakh be awarded by the Union Territory of Puducherry State Legal Services Authority under the Union Territory of Puducherry Victim Assistance Scheme within three months, the Bench added.
Since Vinodhini did not respond to his one sided love, the accused had on November 24, 2012, threw acid on her. The bench said so far as the quantum of punishment was concerned, the trial court ought to have examined the same elaborately to find out whether the offence committed by the accused would fall within the rarest of rare cases so as to impose the capital punishment.
