SC sends a man to the gallows for raping 10-yr-old girl, killing her & minor brother

The Supreme Court sent a man to the gallows on Thursday for "horribly" gang-raping a 10-year-old girl along with a co-accused and killing her and her seven-year-old brother by throwing them in a canal with their hands tied.

Terming the offence, in Coimbatore in 2010, as "shocking" and "cold blooded", a three judge bench headed by Justice R F Nariman, by a majority of 2:1, upheld the verdicts of the trial court and the Madras High Court to award death penalty to condemned convict Manoharan, saying that the offence fell under the "rarest of rare" category.

The top court took note of the "significant amendment" made to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012" by Parliament on July 24 and said that the legislature has made the provision of death penalty in rape case involving minor victim up to the age of 12 years.

Justices Nariman, Surya Kant and Sanjiv Khanna were on the same page in upholding the conviction of the accused for the offence of kidnapping, gang rape and murder.

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

Manoharan and co-accused Mohanakrishnan, who was later shot dead in an encounter, had picked up the girl and her seven-year-old brother from outside a temple on October 29, 2010 when they were going to school.

They tied the hands of both minor siblings and brutally gang raped the girl before trying to kill them by poisoning.

As they did not die of poisoning, the accused tied their hands and threw them to Parambikulam-Axhiyar Project canal where they drowned.

Justice Nariman, writing the judgement for himself and justice Surya Kant, said: "We have no doubt that the trial court and High Court have correctly applied and balanced aggravating circumstances with mitigating circumstances to find that the crime committed was cold blooded and involves the rape of a minor girl and murder of two children in the most heinous fashion possible."