Rape, murder of 5-year-old: HC sets aside death penalty, sends case back to trial court

The Punjab and Haryana High Court Monday quashed the conviction and subsequent death sentence awarded to a 27-year-old man in the brutal rape and murder of a five-year-old girl in Jhajjar, Haryana, in 2020 citing major procedural errors in the trial.

Hearing the death reference and the convict’s appeal, a division bench of Justices Anoop Chitkara and Justice Sukhvinder Kaur, set aside the trial court’s order and sent back the case to the sessions court for a fresh hearing and judgment.

The court found critical defects in the recording of the accused’s statement under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (now Section 351 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023), which, it said, denied him a fair opportunity to explain key evidence.

The victim was abducted on her fifth birthday during the intervening night of December 20-21, 2020.

The accused, a plumber with prior criminal antecedents, allegedly reached the family’s rented house while under the influence of alcohol, abducted the child, and took her to his own house just 40-50 metres away. He locked the doors, sexually assaulted her and then smothered her to death.

Police found the child naked and motionless, with the accused half-naked lying over her. The postmortem confirmed death by “asphyxia due to homicidal smothering” and evidence of forcible sexual assault. DNA evidence and scene recoveries strongly linked the accused.

The trial court had convicted the man under sections 302 (murder), 376-AB (rape of child below 12), 377 (unnatural offences) of the IPC, and Section 6 of the POCSO Act, imposing the death penalty besides other sentences.

The high court, however, highlighted that crucial evidence, such as the DNA report, the parents’ statements under Section 164 CrPC, and the toxicology report, were never put to the accused for explanation. The questions framed were lengthy and compound, lumping multiple facts together instead of individually presenting each incriminating circumstance.

Disposing of the plea filed by the 27-year-old “to the extent that the judgment of conviction and the order of sentence is quashed and set aside,” the bench ordered that “the matter is remanded back to the Sessions Court…”.

The court directed: “The trial Court shall put all the incriminating evidence to the accused by making small questions as per the facts and evidence… and after that afford him an opportunity to lead defence evidence, if he wants to do so… Thereafter, on hearing the parties pass a fresh judgment in accordance with the law.”

The murder reference was disposed of as infructuous. Noting the case’s pendency since 2021 and the 2020 FIR, the bench requested the trial court “to expedite the hearing by striking a balance between Speedy Justice and Buried Justice.”

The ruling emphasises fairness to the accused without disregarding justice for the victim, remanding the case to resume from the stage of proper examination under the law rather than ordering a full retrial from scratch.

Manraj Grewal Sharma is a senior journalist and the Resident Editor Read More