In Brief
An 11-year-old girl was kidnapped, raped, and murdered. The appellant and a co-accused were convicted on circumstantial evidence including DNA on their clothes, injuries matching the struggle, and admissions during interrogation. The Trial Court and High Court imposed death sentences. The Supreme Court upheld the conviction but commuted the sentence to life imprisonment for 30 years without remission. While the crime was barbaric, the appellant was only 25 years old with no prior criminal record and rehabilitation prospects remained. The Court emphasized that death penalty requires considering the criminal, not just the crime, and absent prosecution evidence proving no reformation is possible, death sentence cannot stand.
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