Death penalty for Kerala rape, murder convict upheld

Thiruvananthapuram: Two men accused of sexual assault have been handed strong verdicts by two courts in Kerala.

Justice T.R. Ramachandran Nair and B. Kamal Pasha of the state high court on Tuesday upheld the death penalty given to Govindachamy by the Thrissur fast-track court. He had been convicted in the rape and murder of Soumya, a 23-year-old, in February 2011. The ruling came in a review petition filed by the convict against the lower court’s verdict.

In another case of sexual assault, the Kasaragod district sessions court handed a 10-year prison term to Maruthi, a native of Karnataka, for sexually assaulting his 5-year-old granddaughter. The matter came to light in April when the child was admitted to hospital.

The Soumya-Govindachamy case had shocked the state, and attracted media attention for many months in 2011. Soumya was travelling alone in the ladies’ compartment of the Shoranur-Ernakulam train and Govindachamy got into the same carriage.

When Soumya resisted assault, she was pushed out of the moving train near Vallathol Nagar and later raped and murdered. Police later arrested Govindachamy in Tamil Nadu.

The high court rejected Govindachamy’s argument that there was no witnesses for the crime. The court said the case was among the rarest of rare cases, and also heard from the prosecution that the convicted criminal was unrepentant.

The prosecution was able to prove its case using mainly circumstantial evidence. Soumya’s hair and Govindchamy’s shirt button were recovered from the ladies’ compartment, suggesting a struggle before she was pushed out of the train.

The court has suggested moving the ladies’ compartment to the middle of the train and also providing armed guards for the protection of women passengers.