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Gauhati High Court commutes death sentences in Assam girls' case
Three men were convicted of raping and killing two girls in Assam.
The girls were about 14 and 16 years old.
Their bodies were found hanging from a tree in June 2021.
Prosecutors said the men strangled the girls and then staged the deaths to look like suicides.
DNA evidence connected the men to biological material found on the victims.
A trial court sentenced all three men to death in 2022.
The Gauhati High Court kept their convictions but changed the punishment to life in prison for the rest of their natural lives.
The judges said the crime was extremely serious, but the evidence did not prove that the men could never change.
The Gauhati High Court upheld the convictions of three men for raping and murdering two minor girls in 2021.
The court replaced their death sentences with imprisonment for the remainder of their natural lives.
The girls, aged about 14 and 16, were found hanging from a tree in Assam’s Kokrajhar district on June 11, 2021.
Post-mortem examinations found manual strangulation and forcible sexual intercourse, while DNA evidence linked the accused to biological material from the bodies.
The court said the crime’s brutality alone did not prove that the men could not be reformed or rehabilitated.
- Who
- Three convicted men, two minor girls, the Gauhati High Court, and the victims’ families.
- What
- The court upheld the men’s convictions but commuted their death sentences to imprisonment for the remainder of their natural lives.
- Where
- The incident occurred in a jungle in Assam’s Kokrajhar district, and the case was decided by the Gauhati High Court.
- When
- The girls were found dead on June 11, 2021; the trial court imposed death sentences in April 2022; the High Court issued its ruling on September 10.
- Why
- The court found the crime exceptionally grave but said the prosecution had not shown that the possibility of the men’s reform or rehabilitation was foreclosed.
Defense Arguments
Prosecution and Victims’ Family Arguments
Strength of the evidence
Defense Arguments
Defense counsel argued that the case relied entirely on circumstantial evidence, had no eyewitness, and showed only the accused men’s presence in the general vicinity.
Prosecution and Victims’ Family Arguments
The prosecution and victims’ family argued that medical findings and DNA evidence linked the accused to the sexual assaults despite the absence of an eyewitness.
Reliability of forensic evidence
Defense Arguments
Defense counsel questioned whether blood and semen samples were properly collected and preserved and argued that call records and tower locations could not prove physical presence at the crime scene.
Prosecution and Victims’ Family Arguments
The opposing counsel argued that the forensic evidence supplied the link normally difficult to establish when there is no eyewitness to the assault.
Appropriate punishment
Defense Arguments
The High Court concluded that the available evidence did not establish that the offenders were beyond reform or rehabilitation, making imprisonment for their natural lives the appropriate sentence.
Prosecution and Victims’ Family Arguments
The state argued that the rape and murder of two minor girls, the staging of their deaths, and the family’s suffering justified confirmation of the death penalty.
Key facts
- Victims
- Two minor girls, aged about 14 and 16
- Incident date
- June 11, 2021
- Location
- A jungle in Kokrajhar district, Assam
- Trial court sentence
- Death penalty for all three accused in April 2022
- High Court outcome
- Convictions upheld; death sentences replaced with imprisonment for the remainder of their natural lives
- Key evidence
- DNA profiling, post-mortem findings, call-detail records, tower-location evidence, and other circumstantial evidence
- Cause of death
- Manual strangulation, according to the post-mortem examinations
Quotes
Gauhati High Court bench
The bench comprising Chief Justice Ashutosh Kumar and Justice Arun Dev Choudhary.
“The appropriate balance can be achieved by imposing life imprisonment for the remainder of the appellants’ natural lives rather than the death penalty.”
indianexpress.com
“We cannot conclude that the possibility of reformation is foreclosed merely by the brutality of the crime.”
indianexpress.com
Sources
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