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The Supreme Court bench fixed March 17 to hear at length a batch of pleas filed for and against the Maratha quota. Photo: PTI

SC stays execution of convict till Oct 16 in Coimbatore rape, double murder case


Three days ahead of the scheduled hanging of a death row convict for ‘horribly’ gang raping a minor girl and killing her along with her brother in Coimbatore in 2010, the Supreme Court on Tuesday (September 17) stayed his execution till October 16.

A bench headed by Justice R F Nariman said it would hear on October 16 the plea filed by convict Manoharan seeking a review of the apex court’s August 1 verdict had which confirmed his death penalty.

During the open court hearing on the review plea, the bench, which also comprised justices Sanjiv Khanna and Surya Kant, said it was granting ‘last opportunity’ to the counsel representing the convict to argue the case since it was a matter of death sentence.

The counsel told the bench that a death warrant has been issued and he was scheduled to be executed on September 20.

“List the matter on October 16, 2019, at 3 pm as a last opportunity for oral arguments in terms of our judgment. Meanwhile, there shall be stay of execution of the death sentence,” the bench said in its order.

The top court had on August 1 sent Manoharan to gallows for ‘horribly’ gang-raping a 10-year-old girl along with a co-accused and killing her and her seven-year-old brother by throwing them in a canal with their hands tied.

Terming the offence as ‘shocking’ and ‘cold blooded’, a three-judge bench, by a majority of 2:1, had upheld the verdicts of the trial court and the Madras High Court to award death penalty to the condemned convict saying that the offence fell under the ‘rarest of rare’ category.

During the hearing on Tuesday, the counsel representing the convict told the bench that throughout the trial in the case, Manoharan was lodged in jail and seven advocates were changed in the matter due to which the convict was not duly represented from trial court to the top court.

“During the trial, he (convict) must have been produced before the court and interacted with his lawyers,” the bench observed. The lawyer said however that the convict was not given legal aid when a magistrate had recorded his confessional statement.

“Seven lawyers were changed in the matter. There was a resolution of the bar that no lawyer will appear for him in the case. No lawyer has done his case properly,” the counsel said, adding that she would also inspect the records of the case.

She said senior lawyer Siddharth Luthra, who would argue the case, could not come to the court on Tuesday and the matter should be listed for hearing in second week of October.

“We will take it up for once as it is a death sentence matter. Otherwise there is absolutely nothing in it (review petition). You are wasting our time. You have wasted our one hour,” the bench said.

Manoharan and co-accused Mohanakrishnan, who was later shot dead in an encounter, had picked up the 10-year-old girl and her seven-year-old brother from outside a temple on October 29, 2010 when they were going to school.

They had tied the hands of both minor siblings and brutally gang raped the girl before trying to kill them by poisoning. As they did not die of poisoning, the accused tied their hands and threw them to Parambikulam-Axhiyar Project canal where they drowned.

In its August 1 verdict, Justices Nariman, Khanna and Surya Kant were on the same page in upholding the conviction of Manoharan for offences of kidnapping, gang rape and murder.

However, Justice Khanna was of the view that instead of death penalty, the jail term for the remainder of life without any benefit of remission would meet the ends of justice.

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