Coimbatore child rape-murder case: SC dismisses review plea of convict

Supreme Court on Thursday reaffirmed death penalty of a convict for "horribly" gangraping a 10-year-old girl and killing her along with her bror in Coimbatore in 2010. In a majority judgment of 2:1, a bench headed by Justice R F Nariman dismissed plea filed by convict Maharan and said re are grounds to review verdict.

While Justices Nariman and Suryakant dismissed review plea, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, who was also part of three-judge bench, said he has a different view on point of sentence only.

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"In view of majority judgment, review petition stands dismissed in its entirety," bench said.

top court had last month stayed execution of convict Maharan and said it would hear arguments on his plea seeking review of its August 1 verdict which had confirmed his death penalty. apex court had on August 1 sent Maharan to gallows for raping girl along with a co-accused and killing her and her seven-year-old bror by throwing m in a canal with ir hands tied.

Terming offence as "shocking" and "cold blooded", a three-judge bench, by a majority of 2:1, had upheld verdicts of trial court and Madras High Court to award death penalty to convict, saying offence fell under "rarest of rare" category. Maharan and co-accused Mohanakrishnan, who was later shot dead in an encounter, had picked up mir girl and her younger bror from outside a temple on October 29, 2010 when y were going to school.

y had tied hands of both mir siblings and brutally gang-raped girl before trying to kill m by poisoning. As y did t die of poisoning, two men tied ir hands and threw m into Parambikulam-Axhiyar Project canal where y drowned. In its August 1 verdict, Justices Nariman, Khanna and Surya Kant were on same p in upholding conviction of Maharan for offences of kidnapping, gang rape and murder.

However, Justice Khanna was of view that instead of death penalty, jail term for remainder of life without any benefit of remission would meet ends of justice. 

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