New Delhi: The Supreme Court has stayed the death sentence awarded to a 22-year-old man convicted of committing rape and murder of a four-year-old girl.
While staying the execution, a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud on Monday instructed the authorities to submit the original records of the case. The order was uploaded on the top court's website on Tuesday.
Convict Vinod alias Rahul Chouhtha, who hails from the Shahdol district of Madhya Pradesh, had moved the apex court challenging the high court's order of August 8 upholding his death sentence awarded for rape and murder of the minor.
While upholding the death penalty, the high court had observed that the state was not "soft" where the "predators committing such serious crimes may get reprieve in the guise of humanity".
"Humanity is more in danger at the hands of such persons. We find that there is no mitigating circumstance in favour of the appellant (Vinod)," a division bench of the high court had said in its order.
Vinod was awarded capital punishment by a POCSO special court in Shahdol district on February 28. He was also sentenced to life imprisonment under Section 5/6 of POCSO Act.
He raped the child after luring her with biscuits and killed her on May 13, 2017.
