SC upholds death sentence of convict in gang rape and murder case

Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the death sentence of Manoharan, convicted in gang- raping a 10-year-old girl and murdering her along with her 7-year-old brother in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. 

A three-member bench headed by Justice RF Nariman ruled by a majority of two against one, saying there was no basis for review of the judgment upholding the death sentence of convict Manoharan.

Justices Nariman and Justice Suryakant dismissed the revision petition while Justice Sanjeev Khanna said that only on the point of conviction did they have a different view. "In view of the majority verdict, the review petition is dismissed completely," the bench said.

Terming the crime as "shocking" and "cold-blooded", the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty verdicts of the trial court and the Madras High Court saying the offence was in the "rarest of rare" category.

Manoharan and his partner Mohanakrishnan (later killed in a police encounter) had picked up the girl and her 7-year-old brother from outside a temple on 29 October 2010 while going to school.

They tied the hands of the two siblings and gang raped the girl before poisoning them. When both of them did not die of poison, the culprits tied their hands and feet and threw them into the canal, where they both drowned.