INDIA: HC SETS ASIDE DEATH SENTENCE, ACQUITS CONVICT OF ALL CHARGES

July 24, 2018:

The Madras High Court set aside the conviction as well as death sentence imposed by a trial court on 24-year-old P. Manikandan for having allegedly murdered a four-year-old girl child in Tiruvannamalai on June 13, 2013 due to a personal enmity with her father over repaying the loans that he had taken from him.
Allowing a criminal appeal filed by the convict, a Division Bench of Justices S. Vimala and S. Ramathilagam agreed with Senior Counsel N.R. Elango that a Mahila Court in Tiruvannamalai had casually convicted and awarded capital punishment to the appellant though there was hardly any evidence to connect him with the offence.
The Bench ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the murder of the child to find out the real perpetrators of the crime within three months.