Bombay High Court

INDIA: TWO RAPISTS GET LIFE AS BOMBAY HC COMMUTES DEATH PENALTY

October 3, 2021:

Two convicts who were handed out death penalty for raping a minor girl got life in jail, without remission, on 7 September 2021 as the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court rejected their appeals but commuted the capital punishment to life term.
The accused Sagar Borkar and Nikhil Golait were sentenced to the gallows by Buldhana sessions court on 13 August last year for sexually exploiting a nine-year-old girl on 26 April 2019.
Both were convicted under sections 363, 376(2)(j), 376(2)(m), 376(DB), 506 read with Section 34 of the IPC along with Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, 2012. They were awarded capital punishment by the special Pocso court under Section 376 (DB).
“In view of the law laid down by the Supreme Court, death sentence is not the only penalty for offence under Section 376 (DB). It states that on previous occasions also, the accused must be convicted for the heinous offence, which is not the present case,” said a division bench comprising Justice Vinay Deshpande and Justice Amit Borkar.
“We have already noted that no evidence is recorded by the prosecution to show that the accused are menace to the society. We find ourselves disagreeing with the death punishment imposed by special judge,” said the judges.
According to the prosecution, the complainant, working as a coolie, was sleeping under a tin shed where he used to live with his family comprising wife and three daughters at Chikhli in Buldhana. On 26 April 2019, when the family was sleeping, the accused duo arrived at the spot on a two-wheeler and consumed liquor. They left the spot after sometime.
When the complainant woke up again, he was stunned to see that his eldest daughter was missing. He and his wife then started searching for her in nearby areas. During the search, they saw their daughter walking alone and crying on road near Mouni Baba Sansthan. The girl narrated her ordeal as to how two youths forcibly took her on their vehicle to a secluded area and took turns to rape her. Based on her father’s complaint, the duo was arrested and tried. The survivor’s medical report confirmed their heinous act.
Based on the evidence and testimony of the witnesses, the sessions court awarded capital punishment to the accused, which they challenged in the HC through counsels Rajendra Daga and AA Dhawas. The police had also approached the HC for confirmation of the death sentence through counsel Sanjay Doifode.