Soumya’s mother moves Supreme Court

Sumathy says State failed to provide a full picture of criminal antecedents of convict Govindachami.

Almost a week after the Supreme Court commuted the death penalty of Govindachami for the murder of her daughter, Soumya Viswanathan’s mother, Sumathy, moved the Supreme Court on Thursday urging the apex court to review its judgment.

Prosecution witness

The Supreme Court had replaced the charge of murder — for which the convict was awarded capital punishment — with ‘voluntarily causing grievous hurt’ and reduced Govindachami’s death penalty to seven-year imprisonment. The court, however, confirmed the sentence of life imprisonment for “brutal and grotesque rape.”

Ms. Sumathy has argued that the State failed to provide the apex court a full picture of the criminal antecedents of Govindachami, a Tamil Nadu native. Represented by advocate Aljo Joseph, the victim’s mother pointed out that she was a prosecution witness in the trial court, but was left behind as the case progressed to higher courts.

Severe injuries

Importantly, Ms. Sumathy submitted that it did not matter whether Soumya “fell off” the running train or “jumped off.” What the apex court should have first considered was Govindachami’s very presence in the train, his intention to cause her harm and the resultant brutal assault on her in the train which culminated in her rape and death.

She submitted that the injuries Soumya sustained inside the train, when her head was repeatedly banged on the compartment floor by Govindachami, was sufficient to have caused death. This amounted to murder. The victim’s mother said the assault inside the train had caused “patent injuries on the vital part of the body of the victim.” In short, Soumya had suffered extensive brain damage and paralysis even before the scene of crime shifted outside the train.

Lack of clinching evidence

Govindachami, a one-armed man, was spared the gallows by the Supreme Court on September 15 for lack of “clinching evidence” of his intention to kill her.

Though the Bench led by Justice Ranjan Gogoi agreed with forensic evidence that Soumya was attacked by the convict in 2011 when she was travelling alone in a ladies coach on the Ernakulam-Shoranur passenger train, the prosecution narrative suffered a dent when it could not conclusively prove that Govindachami pushed her off the train.

The only intention

The September 15 judgment had reasoned that Govindachami’s intention was only to rape Soumya. He had no medical knowledge to realise that placing her in a “supine position” to commit the sexual assault would exacerbate her already advanced injuries, causing her death.