The Supreme Court has ordered Death Sentence Commutation for Waris, who was convicted of raping and murdering his six-year-old stepdaughter in Madhya Pradesh. The Court upheld his conviction but modified the punishment from death to life imprisonment.
A Bench comprising Justice Vikram Nath, Justice Sandeep Mehta and Justice Vijay Bishnoi considered the appeal filed by Waris.
Special Court Had Awarded Death Penalty
The Special Court under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, Jaora, convicted Waris on December 17, 2018.
The court found him guilty under Sections 376(2)(F), 376(2)(N), 376(AB), 302 and 201 of the IPC and Sections 5/6 of the POCSO Act.
The trial court sentenced him to death under Sections 376AB and 302 IPC. It also imposed five years of rigorous imprisonment under Section 201 IPC.
The Madhya Pradesh High Court subsequently upheld both the conviction and the death sentence. Waris then approached the Supreme Court.
Prosecution Relied on Medical and DNA Evidence
The deceased child was the daughter of Waris’s third wife from her previous marriage.
The High Court found that the prosecution had proved the sexual assault. It relied on the mother’s testimony, medical evidence and DNA evidence.
The post-mortem examination revealed multiple injuries on the child’s body. The medical panel concluded that she died from asphyxiation caused by throttling.
The DNA report also supported the prosecution’s case. Male Y chromosomes found on the child’s clothes matched Waris’s Y-chromosome DNA profile.
Child’s Mother Testified About Repeated Assault
The child’s mother testified that Waris had sexually assaulted her daughter on several occasions. She also described physical violence against the child.
According to her, Waris assaulted and sexually abused the child on April 21, 2018.
The following day, the mother heard the child’s muffled cries. She then found Waris withdrawing his hands from the child’s neck. The child subsequently collapsed.
High Court Rejected Alibi Defence
The Madhya Pradesh High Court rejected Waris’s plea of alibi.
It found contradictions between his evidence and the testimony given by his defence witnesses.
The High Court also noted that Waris did not examine the persons whom he claimed to have accompanied on the relevant date.
The Court further found that he had attempted to conceal the offences.
Despite the child’s condition, Waris did not take her to a doctor. He also concealed the clothes she had worn during the sexual assault.
The High Court further found that he attempted to have the child’s body cremated before the police were alerted.
High Court Found Aggravated Penetrative Sexual Assault
The High Court noted that Waris was the child’s stepfather and shared a domestic relationship with her.
It therefore found that the child had been subjected to aggravated penetrative sexual assault.
The Court also observed that the sexual assault had continued over a period of time and was ultimately followed by the child’s murder.
While considering the appropriate punishment, the High Court noted that courts may impose the death penalty only in the “rarest of rare” cases.
It referred to the Supreme Court’s decisions in Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab and Macchi Singh v. State of Punjab. These decisions require courts to assess and balance aggravating and mitigating circumstances before imposing capital punishment.
Crime, Criminal and Rarest of Rare Tests
The High Court also referred to the “Crime Test”, “Criminal Test” and “Rarest of Rare Test” discussed in Shankar Kisan Rao Khade v. State of Maharashtra.
It noted that the Crime Test must be 100 per cent. This means there should be no doubt regarding the accused’s commission of the offence.
The Criminal Test must be zero. This means there should be no mitigating circumstances favouring the accused.
Even after satisfying these two tests, the court must separately apply the Rarest of Rare Test.
Applying these principles, the High Court observed:
“In the present case, as already found proved, the accused Waris exhibited extreme depraved state of mind when he made the innocent little girl-child, whose welfare was his bounden duty, a tool to satiate his carnal desires and heaped miseries upon her in the form of her sexual exploitation over a period of time and ultimately, he brutally ebbed out her flame of life by strangulating her. The act was clearly cruel, diabolic, depraved and gruesome and the guidelines for awarding the death sentence culled out in Macchi Singh’s case (supra) are satisfied.”
The High Court concluded that the established facts placed the offence within the “rarest of rare” category.
It found that the Crime Test stood at 100 per cent and the Criminal Test at zero. The High Court therefore concluded that the circumstances warranted the death penalty.
Supreme Court Commutes Death Sentence
Waris subsequently approached the Supreme Court.
The Bench of Justice Vikram Nath, Justice Sandeep Mehta and Justice Vijay Bishnoi upheld his conviction.
However, the Supreme Court did not sustain the death penalty imposed by the trial court and affirmed by the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
The Court ordered Death Sentence Commutation, modifying Waris’s punishment from death to life imprisonment.
