Thrissur Sessions Court had sentenced him to capital punishment. The Kerala High Court confirmed the death penalty, observing that the convict deserved nothing less.
Exonerating him of murder, the Supreme Court pointed out that Soumya had survived for a “couple of days after the incident and eventually died in a hospital.
This, it observed, "clearly militate against any intention of the accused to cause death.”
Why it is not murder?
In its judgment on Govindachamy’s appeal, the Supreme Court agreed that Soumya was bruised badly by Govindachamy’s assault inside the train.
But the Bench pointed out that the prosecution was totally unable to produce any “cogent or reliable” evidence to show that he had pushed her off the train.
Again, the court noted that Govindachamy had placed his injured victim in a “supine position” while raping her on the rail tracks. Forensic evidence showed that the position had exacerbated her already “extreme injuries”, leading to aspiration of blood into the air passage and brain damage.
But the judgment argues how Govindachamy, who has no medical training, be guilty of intending to murder Soumya when has no knowledge that placing her in a supine position would lead to her death.
His intention was to only sexually assault her, the court noted.
