In Brief
A 19-year-old man was convicted by the trial court and the conviction confirmed by the High Court for the rape and murder of a 7½-year-old girl. The case was based on circumstantial evidence—the accused was last seen with the victim, gave her money, instructed her companion to leave, and the victim's blood-stained clothing was found in his house. The Supreme Court upheld the conviction but commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment, finding the case did not qualify as 'rarest of rare' for capital punishment due to mitigating factors including the appellant's youth, lack of prior convictions, and good jail conduct.
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