SC drops murder charge in Soumya case, upholds life for rape

Govindachamy, convicted in the sensational case of Soumya in Kerala, today escaped death penalty as the Supreme Court dropped murder charge against him and upheld life imprisonment for raping the 23-year-old sales representative.
The verdict came as shock for the victim's family which dubbed it as "heart breaking" and expressed anguish over the "failure" of the state prosecutor to "properly" present the case in apex court.
In the 22-page verdict, the apex court discharged Govindachamy under section 302 (murder) of IPC, in which the maximum sentence is capital punishment, saying there was no intention on his part to kill the victim but only to sexually assault her by keeping her in a supine position.

The court said the "brutal" and "grotesque" manner in which the victim was assaulted before rape after she had fallen out of a slow-moving train at a lonely place before the station, warrants retainment of life sentence awarded by the trial court which was confirmed by the Kerala High Court.
While dropping section 302 of IPC, a bench comprising justices Ranjan Gogoi, P C Pant and U U Lalit held him guilty for the offence of causing grievous hurt under section 325 of the IPC and awarded seven years rigorous imprisonment which will run concurrently with the life sentence awarded to him.

While Saumya's mother Sumathy said she would not give up her fight to get justice for her daughter and file a revision petition, the state government also said it would seek review of the verdict commuting death sentence of Govindachamy for the February 1, 2011 criminal assault, saying it was "not a just punishment".

In its verdict, the apex court said "the fact that the deceased survived for a couple of days after the incident and eventually died in hospital would also clearly militate against any intention of accused (Govindachamy) to cause death by the act of keeping the deceased in a supine position."

"Similarly, in keeping the deceased in a supine position, intention to cause death or knowledge that such act may cause death, cannot be attributed to the accused. We are, accordingly, of the view that the offence under Section 302 IPC cannot be held to be made out against the accused so as to make him liable therefore.
"Rather, we are of the view that the acts of assault etc attributable to the accused would more appropriately attract the offence under Section 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) of IPC. We accordingly find the accused guilty of the said offence and sentence him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years for commission of the same," it said.