Chennai, Jan 12 (BPNS)

The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday confirmed the death sentence awarded to a youth for sexually assaulting and murdering a seven-year-old girl at Pudukottai in Tamil Nadu.

The division bench comprising of Justices S Vaidyanathan and G. Jayachandran said that there was no infirmity in the order awarded by the Pudukottai Mahila court against M. Samivel alias Raja. The Mahila court in Pudukottai had sentenced Raja hanged till death for the offense he had committed on the seven-year-old girl.

The Madras High court said that the prosecution charge that Raja was seen with the girl on June 20, 2020, and his clothes were stained with the blood of the girl, and his failure to prove his innocence was all clear evidence against him.

Referring to the postmortem report of the girl, the judges observed, “The external injuries on the child included three deep wounds on the head and similar wounds on several parts of the face, neck, chest, multiple abrasions on the abdomen, thighs and private parts of the  child.”

The judges observed the pain undergone by the child and said,” After fulfilling his carnal desires he had brutally attacked the child with a stick and dashed her head on a tree thereby piercing her face and neck. The brutal act reveals his mind and he needs a fitting punishment of the highest order.”

The division bench of the Madras High court observed that no one should be judged by their external appearance and cited the example of Adolph Hitler. The court said, “Adolph Hitler despite killing millions of people hated cruelty to animals and was a pure vegetarian.”

The judges also said, “ If a person like the accused is allowed to survive in this world, he will pollute the minds of the co-prisoners. When the attitude of a person turns into that of a beast with no mercy for others, he should be punished and sent to the eternal world.”

The court also observed, “The barbaric manner in which the child was killed and the mental agony undergone by the child’s parents, except death sentence nothing is enough for the culprit.”

Prosecution had charged that Raja had kidnapped and taken the 7-year-old child to a secluded place and did aggravated sexual penetration and later murdered her brutally. After the parents of the child lodged a missing person complaint on June 20, 2020 police found her body in a dried pond covered with bushes and arrested Raja.