INDIA: HC UPHOLDS DEATH SENTENCE FOR RAPE AND MURDER CONVICT

April 7, 2012: The Bombay high court (HC) confirmed the death sentence awarded to 45-year-old Wadi resident Vasanta Dupare, taking the diabolical and perverse manner in which the convict had kidnapped, raped and murdered a four-year-old girl into account. Confirming the death penalty awarded by a sessions court, the Nagpur bench of the HC comprising justice PV Hardas and justice Sadhana Jadhav observed that the tragedy is of unimaginable magnitude fraught with pain and anguish.
On April 3, 2008, Dupare took the victim Muskan Sharma playing in the courtyard of her house in Wadi along with him by luring her with chocolates. The girl’s mother Pinky learned about it through Muskan’s friend Akansha. The victim’s father then lodged a police complaint. While scouting the area, the police sub-inspector found a man fleeing, who happened to be the accused. Dupare was then apprehended. On interrogation, he revealed the place where the offence had been committed. The police found the body of the victim and stones that were used to batter the victim’s face beyond recognition from the spot at Santoshi Mata Nagar.
The court noted that the accused had planned to lure both Muskan and Akansha, which was foiled. “The accused took Muskan to an isolated area and committed the worst indignity which a woman is called upon to face. Battering the head of the girl of tender years was done by the accused with extreme cruelty. The aggravating circumstance would have shocked the conscience of the community in general. The accused had acted in diabolical manner and had designedly lured the unsuspecting girl to accompany him on a bicycle,” the court observed.
“The accused has not displayed any remorse or repentance for the act done by him and we do not find any material to indicate that there is a possibility of the accused reforming himself,” the judges noted while upholding the death sentence. (Sources: Hindustan Times, 7/4/2012)