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Kerala court upholds death penalty in rape, murder case
A fast track court at Trichur had awarded capital punishment to the convict in December 2012 as he was found to be a habitual offender.
Govindachamy pushed Soumya out of a moving train after molesting her.
The Kerala High Court on Tuesday confirmed the death sentence awarded to Tamil Nadu native Govindachamy for brutally raping and murdering a 23-year-old woman after pushing her out of a moving train in Trichur in 2011.
A fast track court at Trichur had awarded capital punishment to the convict in December 2012 as he was found to be a habitual offender. Hailing from Virudanagar in Tamil Nadu, Govindachamy was previously convicted in eight cases in the neighbouring state.
He had moved an appeal in the high court. While upholding the death penalty, a division bench of the high court comprising Justice TR Ramchadran Nair and Justice Kemal Pasha said the case was rarest of rare and the accused did not deserve any leniency.
The court upheld the findings of the lower court. The fast track court had observed there was no legal or moral justification for the act. The nature of the crime was savage and also noted that the accused was a habitual offender.
Soumya, an employee of a shopping mall at Cochin, was going home in Palghat after her duty in connection with a marriage proposal. The ladies compartment in the train was almost abandoned when the assailant pounced on her.
While Soumya resisted the molestation attempt, the assailant pushed her out from the moving train.
He also jumped after her and pulled Soumya to a deserted area along the tracks and raped her brutally. She succumbed to injuries at the Trichur Government Medical College Hospital on February 6. The high court came down heavily on the Railways for its lapses in ensuring the security of women passengers.
The division bench has directed the railways to shift the ladies compartments to the middle of the train and to post women constables there. The murder of Soumya, an employee of a shopping mall in Cochin, had shocked the state as the incident exposed the insecurity of women passengers in ladies compartment in trains.
Though the railways proposed a number of measures to enhance security for women in trains following pressure from women activists, most of them still remain on paper. As a result incidents of molesting women on the train are still continuing.
news@khaleejtimes.com
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