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Kerala High Court upholds death sentence to rapist

A division bench of the Kerala High Court upheld a lower court's judgment of awarding death sentence to a rapist on Tuesday and also came down heavily on the Indian Railways, lawyers and also fellow passengers who did not come to the victim's rescue.

The bench of Justice P.R. Ramachandran Nair and Justice P. Kamal Pasha opined that there was no reason to alter the Thrissur Fast Track Court judgement of November 11, 2011, which sentenced Govind Chami, a resident of Tamil Nadu, to death and also slapped on him a fine of Rs1 lakh for the brutal rape of a 23-year-old woman.

The victim was travelling in a women's compartment of the Ernakulam-Shornur passenger train. She was on her way to her home in Shornur where a marriage proposal for her was being discussed.

The brutal incident took place on February 1, 2011, when the victim was assaulted and then thrown out of the moving train. The accused also jumped out and hit the victim's head with a stone after raping her.

The victim died in a hospital on February 6.

The bench came down hard on the fellow passengers who did not come to her help and said their mindset was comparable to that of the criminal. The judicial bench also slammed the Indian Railways for not providing armed women security guards in the women's compartment.

They also pointed out that the victim's travails did not end with the crime as the counsel appearing for the accused maligned her during the trial.

The victim's mother was in tears on Tuesday and thanked the judiciary for justice being given to her daughter.

"The authorities should take note of the points in the judgement with regard to making arrangements for women's safety," said the victim's mother Sumathy.