SC stays execution of death penalty in rape-murder case of minor in Thane

In a relief to a death row convict the Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the execution of a watchman who was convicted for killing a minor girl after sexually assaulting her in Maharashtras Thane district in 2013 and sought reports on mitigating circumstancesA bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices Hima Kohli and J B Pardiwala passed a slew of directions including the one asking the Maharashtra government to place before it all the reports of the probation officers about the condemned prisoners within eight weeksConsidering the facts and circumstances of the case leave to appeal is granted The execution of the death penalty shall remain suspended pending the hearing and final disposal of the special leave petition the bench orderedReferring to a judgement it said that this court had issued guidelines on the need for conducting psychological and psychiatric assessment of the convict facing death penaltyThe bench then directed the Yerawada Central jail authority to provide the details of the nature of work done by the convict Ramkirat Munilal Goud 30 during his continuous stay in jail since 2013The head of the Sasoon General Hospital Pune shall constitute a team to carry out psychological evaluation of the convict and the report be submitted to this court through the counsel for Maharashtra in eight weeks it said adding that the Jail Superintendent will also submit a report on the behaviour of the convictAlso Read Noida Rape accused rams car into security guard in bid to escape arrestThe bench directed the state authorities to grant access of the convict to one Nuriya Ansari for carrying out an independent psychological and psychiatric assessment so that the mitigating circumstances if any can be brought to the notice of this courtAnsari works as a mitigation investigator at Project 39A a criminal justice initiative based out of National Law University The organisation is providing pro bono legal representation to death row convicts in courtsStaying the execution the bench sought original judicial records of the case and directed the apex court registry to compile all the reports sought for and put them before it on the next date of hearingGoud through lawyer Fauzia Shakil has challenged the conviction and the sentence in the case in the top court and later filed an interim application seeking his psychological evaluation as mitigating circumstancesAccording to the prosecution Goud a resident of Thane had allegedly taken away the minor girl at 10 AM on September 30 2013 He raped and killed her before throwing her body in a pondThe victims body including her private parts were in an advanced state of decomposition and the autopsy stated the cause of death as head injury with extensive genital injuriesThe trial court handed down death penalty to Goud in 2019 under various penal proivisions of the IPC and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences ActThe death penalty and the conviction were confirmed by the Bombay High Court in 2021This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever