Jharkhand High Court Upholds Conviction in Child Rape-Murder Case, Scrutinises Death Penalty
Criminal Appeal (DB) No.847 of 2025
The High Court of Jharkhand has upheld the conviction of a man for the rape and murder of a five-year-old child, while carefully examining whether the case qualifies for the death penalty under the “rarest of rare” doctrine.
Applying settled principles governing circumstantial evidence, the Court held that the chain was complete and excluded any hypothesis of innocence. The conviction under Section 302 of the IPC and Section 6 of the POCSO Act was therefore upheld.The Bench observed that brutality alone does not automatically warrant the death penalty. Sentencing, it said, must follow a structured judicial balancing process rather than an emotional response.
The conviction has been upheld, and the sentence has been subjected to strict judicial scrutiny in light of the constitutional principles governing capital punishment. The Court emphasised that death penalty can be confirmed only when the alternative of life imprisonment is unquestionably foreclosed and when the case satisfies the “rarest of rare” threshold after weighing both aggravating and mitigating circumstances.
