Supreme Court stays hanging of rape-murder convict

The Supreme Court at a special hearing stayed the execution of death sentence of the convict, G. Selvam, who was to be hanged on Monday at 6 am for the rape and murder of a girl in Tamil Nadu’s Salem district.
A bench comprising Justice Markandeya Katju and Gyan Sudha Mishra stayed the execution after the convict’s counsel K.V. Vijay Kumar submitted that the execution was being carried out with unusual alacrity.



It also requested the Chief Justice of India to issue circular to all the State governments to ensure that no death sentence is executed before allowing the convict to exercise his or her right of appeal.

Selvam submitted that as per rules, a death convict cannot be hanged before his appeal is decided by the Supreme Court.

In the present case, Mr. Kumar pointed out that the sessions court awarded Selvam death penalty on March 12, this year and the sentence was confirmed by the Madras High Court on September 21.

According to the counsel, under Section 415 (3), the High Court did not stay execution of the sentence to allow Selvam to appeal to the Supreme Court within the 90-day limitation period.

Instead, the sessions court judge had fixed his execution in the Salem prison at 6 am on Monday.

Agreeing with the convict’s plea that the statutory provision has been violated, the bench ordered that Selvam shall not be hanged until further orders.

It also issued notice to the state government to file its response to the convict’s plea.

The case of the prosecution was that Selvam had kidnapped, raped and murdered a girl on February 12, 2009.

After committing the offence, Selvam removed her gold ornaments and then wrapped her body in a gunny bag and dumped it in a canal.

Though there was no direct evidence, both the sessions court and the High Court arrived at the findings that the prosecution has established unimpeachable evidence to prove the guilt of Selvam.

They were also of the firm view that the brutality of the offence fell under the “rarest of the rare category” that warranted death penalty.