SC stays Tamil Nadu rape convict execution for last hearing

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the execution of a man convicted for the rape and murder of a 10-year old girl and the murder of her 7-year-old brother in Coimbatore in 2010.
A month-and-a-half after upholding his death sentence, a bench of Justices R F Nariman, Sanjiv Khanna and Surya Kant agreed to hear the plea of the death row convict seeking review of the apex court's verdict. The bench had on August 1 upheld the sentence by a majority of 2:1 verdict.
Upholding the sentence, Justices Nariman and Kant had said, "There can be no doubt that today's judgement is in keeping with the legislature's realisation that such crimes are on the rise and must be dealt with severely." Justice Khanna, however, said it is not the rarest of rare case and showed leniency to the convict considering him being a first-time offender his age and family status.
Court posts double murder case to October 19
As senior counsel who was to argue his case was not available, the bench granted a last opportunity to the lawyer and posted the case for October 19.
In this case, there were two accused but the prime accused, who had kidnapped the children, was killed in police encounter and the trial was conducted only against Manoharan. The trial court awarded the death sentence to him, which was confirmed by the Madras high court. According to the prosecution, Manoharan along with Mohanakrishnan, former driver of the school van of the children, abducted the siblings on October 29, 2010 with the aim of demanding ransom from their parents. However, they raped the girl and murdered her and later killed her brother. They threw the bodies into a canal near Pollachi.