The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the execution of Govindachami, the sole convict in a rape and murder case. A Bench headed by Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai called for all the records of the case from the lower courts.
The court had issued notice to the Kerala government on June 30 on an appeal filed by the convict against a State High Court judgment confirming his death penalty. The High Court had in December 2013 confirmed the death sentence awarded by the Thrissur Fast Track Court to Govindachami, who hails from Tamil Nadu.
The crime took place on February 1, 2011. The prosecution case was the victim, travelling in a women’s coach on the Ernakulam-Shoranur passenger train, was attacked and pushed off the slow-moving train by Govindachami.
He too then jumped off the train, carried the injured woman to a wooded area near the track at Vallathol Nagar and raped her.
She succumbed to her injuries at the Government Medical College Hospital, Thrissur, on February 6.
Awarding the death penalty, the high court had classified the rape and murder “as one among the rarest of rare cases in which the lesser alternative is unquestionably foreclosed.”
