NEW DELHI: The rising chorus to make rape an offence punishable by death penalty could be a fraught proposition. There have been at least four cases in the recent past where rapists awarded death penalty managed to escape the noose after the President commuted their sentence to life imprisonment.
These include a convict who raped and killed a five-year-old and another who tried to rape a teenager and killed her family in revenge when she resisted.
In most cases, courts follow the "rarest of rare" principle of criminal law giving death sentence to convicts who have committed murder. These four convicts were found guilty of not just rape but murder as well.
The most recent case was that of Uttar Pradesh's Bantu who was convicted of raping and killing a five-year-old girl. The trial court awarded him death which was confirmed by the HC and the apex court. On death row since June 2008, his mercy petition was accepted by President Pratibha Patil in June 2012.
Another convict Satish raped and murdered a six-year-old girl, Visakha, in Uttar Pradesh in 2001. His death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by President Patil in May 2012.
The last accused hanged was Dhananjoy Chatterjee who was found guilty of rape and murder of a 14-year-old.
At present, there is one death row convict whose case has been pending since 1999. Dharam Pal from Haryana murdered five members of the family of a girl he had raped, helped by his brother. The trial court awarded them death and the Punjab and Haryana HC upheld the decision.
However, in March 1999, the apex court, while upholding Dharam Pal's death sentence, converted the sentence of the second accused into a life term. Pal's plea, filed in 1999, was rejected by the home ministry in 2000. The case was resubmitted to the President in 2005. The case came back to the home ministry after Pranab Mukherjee took over as President.
Rapists who escaped the noose:
Bantu raped and killed a five-year-old girl — June 2012
Satish raped and murdered a six-year-old girl — May 2012
Molai Ram & Santosh Yadav gang raped and murdered the 10-year-old daughter of a jailor — February 2011
Dharmender Singh and Narendra Yadav tried to rape a girl, then killed her family — June 2010
Presidential pardon saved rapists the noose
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Presidential pardon saved rapists the noose
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Presidential pardon saved rapists the noose
