Delhi HC upholds life sentence of man who kidnapped, murdered minor

New Delhi, May 16 The Delhi High Court on Tuesday upheld the life sentence handed to a man for first kidnapping a two-year-old girl from outside her house and later murdering her by hitting her against the staircase of a temple in 2016.

A division bench of Justice Mukta Gupta and Justice Poonam A. Bamba dismissed the accused's appeal saying that the prosecution has proved the case and has left no other reasonable explanation.

The bench said: "The prosecution has been able to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. Thus, we find no merit in this appeal. Appeal is accordingly dismissed."

In October 2018, the trial court had awarded the appellant life sentence after he was proved guilty under Sections 363 (kidnapping) and 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code.

Hitting the child against the staircase had led to her death, according to the prosecution and the convict's argument was that the prosecution failed to prove that he had caused any injury to the deceased, causing her death and that there were material contradictions and inconsistencies in the testimonies of the witnesses.

The girl had accidentally slipped from the lap of another person, the eyewitness, who was holding her and in order to divert the issue, a false hue and cry was created to falsely implicate him and there was no motive for him to commit the crime, the man had claimed during the trial.

The court observed that non-proving of motive on the part of the appellant is not always fatal to the prosecution case and as per the post-mortem report, the cause of death was stated to be "cranio cerebral damage consequent upon blunt force impact to the head".

The court said: "In the facts of the instant case, as the prosecution has been able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the appellant had hit the deceased, an infant, against the floor/stairs of the mandir causing injuries on the head and other parts."