Supreme Court stays execution of death penalty in rape-murder case of minor in Thane

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In a relief to a death row convict, the Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the execution of a watchman who was convicted for killing a minor girl after sexually assaulting her in Maharashtra's Thane district in 2013 and sought reports on mitigating circumstances.

A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices Hima Kohli and J B Pardiwala passed a slew of directions including the one asking the Maharashtra government to place before it all the reports of the probation officers about the condemned prisoners within eight weeks.

"Considering the facts and circumstances of the case, leave (to appeal) is granted. The execution of the death penalty shall remain suspended pending the hearing and final disposal of the special leave petition," the bench ordered.

Referring to a judgement, it said that this court had issued guidelines on the need for conducting psychological and psychiatric assessment of the convict facing death penalty.

The bench then directed the Yerawada Central jail authority to provide the details of the nature of work done by the convict Ramkirat Munilal Goud, 30, during his continuous stay in jail since 2013.

"The head of the Sasoon General Hospital, Pune shall constitute a team to carry out psychological evaluation of the convict and the report be submitted to this court through the counsel for Maharashtra in eight weeks," it said, adding that the Jail Superintendent will also submit a report on the behaviour of the convict.

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The bench directed the state authorities to grant access of the convict to one Nuriya Ansari for carrying out an independent "psychological and psychiatric assessment" so that the mitigating circumstances, if any, can be brought to the notice of this court.

Ansari works as a mitigation investigator at 'Project 39A', a criminal justice initiative based out of National Law University. The organisation is providing pro bono legal representation to death row convicts in courts.

Staying the execution, the bench sought original judicial records of the case and directed the apex court registry to compile all the reports sought for and put them before it on the next date of hearing.

Goud, through lawyer Fauzia Shakil, has challenged the conviction and the sentence in the case in the top court and later filed an interim application seeking his psychological evaluation as mitigating circumstances.

According to the prosecution, Goud, a resident of Thane, had allegedly taken away the minor girl at 10 AM on September 30, 2013. He raped and killed her before throwing her body in a pond.

The victim's body including her private parts were in an advanced state of decomposition and the autopsy stated the cause of death as head injury with extensive genital injuries.

The trial court handed down death penalty to Goud in 2019 under various penal proivisions of the IPC and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

The death penalty and the conviction were confirmed by the Bombay High Court in 2021.

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