HC commutes rapist-killer's death penalty to 50-year term
KOLKATA: Calcutta high court on Tuesday commuted the death penalty of a 45-year-old man convicted of raping and murdering a two-and-a-half-year-old child in Kolkata in 2013, ruling that the crime did not fall under the 'rarest of rare' category, and sentenced him to life behind bars without remission for 50 years, reports Srishti Lakhotia.
HC also based its order on psychological evaluation report of the convict that found him suffering from a "mild mental disability". On the intervening night of July 20 and 21, 2013, Suresh Paswan had abducted a toddler from a shanty under Kidderpore ramp of Vidyasagar Setu where she lived with her grandmother, sexually assaulted her, strangled her and dumped the body in a drain. The body was discovered by some slum children on July 21.
Paswan had fled to his village in Bihar and was nabbed from there a day later. An autopsy report showed the child's body bore 17 injuries, establishing that she was subjected to brutal sexual assault. She bled from the nostrils and ears and her death was due to strangulation, the report said.
On March 28, 2019, a sessions court sentenced Paswan to death for the toddler's murder, and awarded him 20 years in jail for rape under the
Pocso Act
. A division bench on Tuesday upheld his conviction, but did not find the crime merited death penalty.
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