No Mercy For Coimbatore Minor’s Rape And Murder Convict: Supreme Court Upholds Death Penalty

The Supreme Court on Thursday (7 November) dismissed petition of a man seeking review of its verdict and upheld conviction and death sentence for raping a minor, and murdering her and her sibling nine years ago in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu.

A three-judge bench by majority of 2:1 held the crime committed by convict Manoharan as "rarest of rare case" category and ruled he did not deserve any sympathy.

The majority judgement also said that it was unlikely that the convict, if set free, would refrain from committing such crime yet again.

Justices R F Nariman and Surya Kant upheld the death penalty while Justice Sanjiv Khanna stressed on life imprisonment.

On 1 August, the Supreme Court had upheld Madras High Court and a trial court order that has awarded the death penalty to Manoharan, saying that the offence fell under the "rarest of rare" category.

Thereafter Manoharan moved the Apex Court seeking review of the death sentence.

On 29 October, 2010, Manoharan and co-accused Mohanakrishnan had picked up the girl and her 7-year-old brother from outside a temple when they were preparing to go to school.

They had brutally gang raped the girl and tried to kill the minors sibling by poisoning.

After they did not die, then they threw the minors to a canal where the minors drowned.

Mohanakrishnan was later shot dead in an encounter.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)