Chennai: A youth, who killed his aunt and her two children in the Nilgiris district in 2012, after she exposed his bid to misbehave with her by making sexual overtures, escaped the noose with the Madras high court commuting the death sentence awarded by the lower court into one of life imprisonment.
Holding that it is not a case falling under ‘rarest of rare case’ category to impose capital punishment, a Division Bench comprising Justices M. Jaichandren and S. Nagamuthu said at the time of occurrence, the accused was hardly aged 20 years and he was an adolescent offender. He had no bad antecedents. After having committed the crime, killing three persons out of depression, the accused himself attempted suicide. Now, there are lots of chances for his reformation. But the trial court had not taken into account these mitigating circumstances at all.
The Bench, however, said the accused should remain in prison for 20 years and he should not be considered for any remission from the date of trial court judgment dated December 16, 2014, as he had killed two “innocent hapless and helpless children”.
