Soumya case: Kerala to file review petition against commuting of death penalty

New Delhi: Kerala government will file a review petition this week against the recent Supreme Court verdict commuting the death sentence of the convict Govindachami in the controversial Soumya case, State Law Minister A K Balan today said.

"Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi will appear for the state government and would request for an open court hearing in the case," the minister said in a press meet here.

"We are trying to bring the case under the purview of section 302 of IPC," Balan said, adding that he had today met the Attorney General in Delhi who had expressed his readiness to conduct the case.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan also spoke to Rohatgi over phone, he said.

The 23-year-old Soumya was attacked, pushed out of a moving train and brutally raped on February 1, 2011. She succumbed to injuries at the Government Medical College Hospital, Thrissur, on February 6, 2011.

The apex court had dropped the murder charge against Govindachami and commuted his death penalty to seven years of jail while upholding the life imprisonment awarded by a trial court on charges of rape.

Balan said the AG would contend in the court to review the case under the ambit of section 302 of the IPC, as section 325 (voluntarily causing grevious hurt) had been invoked by the apex court which itself had recognised one among two major injuries on Soumya's body as a reason for her death.

"The injury number two in the post-mortem report and invoking of section 325 in the case itself can be used to rope in murder charges in the case," Balan said.

There was widespread criticism in the state over the apex court's decision with the victim's mother, Sumathy, stating that it was a "heart breaking" judgment.

Meanwhile, Sumathy said she had received an anonymous telephone call threatening that she would have to face dire consequences if she went ahead with the case.

Police said they have recorded her statement which would be filed in court.