Cuttack, May 7: The Orissa High Court on Monday commuted the death sentence of a minor girl rape & murder convict to lifer.
A Special POCSO Court in Cuttack had convicted one Mohammed Mustak of raping and murdering a six-year-old girl in a village under Salepur police station and sentenced him to death on September 19, 2019.
The state government had moved the High Court for confirmation of the death sentence. On the other hand, the convict had filed a criminal appeal in High Court against the trial court verdict.
Hearing both parties, the Orissa High Court commuted the death sentence imposed on Mohammed Mustak to imprisonment for life with a rider. The court observed that the 31-year-old convict is a married person and has children. Besides, there was no criminal antecedent against him and no adverse conduct was witnessed during his detention in jail custody.
The court acquitted Mustak of the charges of rape but confirmed his conviction for murder.
The division bench of Justice SK Sahoo and Justice RK Pattanaik ruled that he shall undergo a minimum sentence of 20 years before moving an application for remission to be considered on merit only and if no remission is granted, the sentence of imprisonment for life shall mean till the remainder of his life.
“Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future - strikes a note of reformatory potential even in the ghastliest crime. Human endeavour should be to hate the sin and not the sinner. There is still life in life sentence and only death in death sentence,” the bench observed.
According to the case records, the six-year-old victim girl had gone missing on April 21, 2018. Later, she was found lying on the school veranda in a critical condition with deep injuries in her body. She died while undergoing treatment at SCB Medical College and Hospital here on April 29, 2018.
Mustak, who belonged to the same village, was arrested and booked for murder of the girl.
