Justice Khanna however favoured life sentence, “till his natural death, without remission/commutation”.The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the execution till October 16, of a man who was sentenced to death for raping and killing a 10-year-old girl and murdering her seven-year-old brother in Coimbatore in 2010.
A bench of Justices R F Nariman, Sanjeev Khanna and Surya Kant, which was hearing a review petition filed by the convict Manoharan, put the execution on hold till October 16 so as to enable his lawyer to examine the trial court records so that she could argue the matter.
The counsel for Manoharan said seven lawyers were changed in the case and as a result there was no proper representation.
On August 1 the bench had, in a 2:1 judgement, given the death sentence to Manoharan. Justices Nariman and Suryakant backed the extreme penalty saying that the “crime…was cold blooded and involves the rape of a minor girl and murder of two children in the most heinous fashion possible”.
Justice Khanna however favoured life sentence, “till his natural death, without remission/commutation”.
According to the case registered by the Variety Hall police station in Coimbatore, the children were picked up by one Mohanakrishnan from outside a Vinayakar temple on October 29, 2010. He also picked up Manoharan on the way and took the children to a remote area, where they raped the girl.
Thereafter, they fed them milk laced a poisonous substance. The duo then threw the children in the Parambikkulam-Aliyar Project Canal.
Mohanakrishnan was arrested the same night while Manoharan was detained on October 31. Mohanakrishnan was however killed in an encounter with the police on November 9.
