The State government on Tuesday counselled Sumathi, the mother of rape-murder victim Soumya, to move the Supreme Court (SC) to revoke the decision to dismiss the death penalty given to Govindachamy, the convict in the case.
The apex court had set aside the death sentence awarded to Govindachamy on the ground that the State had failed to prove murder. However, it upheld the life sentence awarded to him for rape. Ms. Sumathi’s appeal would be independent of the government’s own forthcoming review petition in the court.
Nevertheless, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan assured her personally that the government would back her plea.
Ms. Sumathi and her son, Sumesh, had called on Mr. Vijayan at his office in the Secretariat. She later told visual media persons that she was “fully satisfied” with the Chief Minister’s response to her entreaties.
The government had come under bruising criticism from the Opposition for “failing to defend” Soumya, the hapless victim of an opportunistic sex crime on board a commuter train near Shoranur in 2011.
Stung, the government declared that it would file a review appeal. It ordered an inquiry to detect and rectify, if any, the forensic or procedural lapses that had worked to the advantage of the defence. B. Sandhya, Additional Director General of Police, South Zone, had headed the special team that investigated the case.
Officials said the Chief Minister was insistent that such “embarrassing” lapses should not occur in other equally important cases now at trial or appeal stage.
His office was monitoring the K. Indu murder case in 2011 and also the more recent murder of a Dalit law student in her shanty in Ernakulam in 2015. The government viewed both cases as benchmark tests for the State police. Officers said plans were afoot to incrementally render public places safe and accessible at all times for women and transgenders. They would entail the use of surveillance cameras in tandem with neighbourhood watch schemes involving local people.
Vedict to be challenged
Addressing mediapersons after a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the Chief Minister said the government would challenge the Supreme Court decision to set aside the death sentence.
