In Brief
A 26-year-old man was convicted of raping and murdering a 4-year-old girl. The victim was last seen with him at a fruit vendor's shop, found unconscious in a field 12 hours later with fatal injuries, and died after 12 days. The Supreme Court affirmed his conviction based on the 'last seen together' doctrine, DNA evidence, and his failure to offer any explanation despite knowing the facts. However, the Court commuted his death sentence to 20 years imprisonment, holding that while the crime was heinous, it did not qualify as a 'rarest of rare case' under Section 376A IPC, which permits restorative justice principles to apply.
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