SC asks Patna HC to reconsider death penalty given to rape, murder convict of minor girl
Sep 04, 2023
New Delhi [India], September 4 : The Supreme Court on Monday set aside the Patna High Court order awarding the death penalty to a man for killing and raping a minor girl in Bihar and asked the Patna HC to reconsider the matter.
The apex court remanded the matter back to Patna High Court for fresh adjudication.
"...we are left with no other alternative but to set aside the impugned judgment of the High Court and remit the matter back to the High Court for deciding the reference under Section 366 of the CrPC in the manner it ought to have been decided, more particularly keeping in mind the serious lapses on the part of the defence in not proving major contradictions in the form of material omissions surfacing from the oral evidence of the prosecution witnesses," the court said.
The top court was hearing the appeal of convict Munna Pandey against the capital punishment given to him by the Patna High Court.
The case pertains to the killing and rape of a minor girl in 2015 in a village in Bihar's Bhagalpur district.
A trial court convicted Munna Pandey for the offence and sentenced him to the death penalty. The punishment was later confirmed by the Patna HC.
Munna Pandey later challenged the order in the Supreme Court.
