Recently, the Supreme Court examined an appeal arising from a shocking rape and murder case reported from Telangana, while dealing primarily with the issue of sentence. Even though notice was limited to sentencing, the Court undertook a careful scrutiny of the entire record to ensure that the conviction itself was legally sustainable and free from serious infirmities.
The case arose from an incident in November 2019, when the victim, who had gone to a nearby village for her daily work, went missing. Her body was found the next day in bushes near the roadside. Based on the complaint, the police registered offences under Sections 302 and 376D read with Section 34 of the IPC and provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The trial court convicted all accused, awarding death penalty and life imprisonment, which was later modified by the High Court to life imprisonment till the remainder of natural life.
The counsel for the Appellant contended that the courts below had wrongly relied upon the “last seen together” theory, extra-judicial confession made in police custody, and recoveries shown under Section 27 of the Evidence Act. It was further argued that the essential ingredients of offences under the SC/ST Act were not made out, as there was no proof that the accused knew the caste of the victim. On sentencing, it was urged that imprisonment for the remainder of natural life was excessive and disproportionate.
The Supreme Court observed that the reliance placed by the High Court on police-facilitated confessions and purported Section 27 recoveries was legally unsustainable, noting that “there can be no reliance placed on such a confession at the behest of the police.” The Court also held that mere presence of the accused and the deceased in the same vicinity could not, by itself, amount to a valid “last seen together” circumstance. However, the Court found that medical evidence, DNA profiling, eyewitness accounts regarding the presence of the accused near the scene, and failure to establish alibi together formed a complete chain of circumstances for rape and murder. It categorically held that conviction under the SC/ST Act could not be sustained in the absence of proof of knowledge of the victim’s caste.
The Supreme Court partly allowed the appeal, setting aside the conviction under the SC/ST Act and one count of theft, while affirming the conviction for rape and murder under the IPC. The sentence of life imprisonment till the remainder of natural life was modified to a fixed term of 25 years’ imprisonment without remission for one accused, with the sentences to run concurrently.
Case Title: Shaik Shabuddin V. State of Telangana
Case No.: Special Leave Petition (Crl.) No.6850 of 2024
Coram: Hon’ble Mr Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Hon’ble Mr Justice K. Vinod Chandran
Counsel for the Appellant: Sr. Adv. Rajesh Pandey, AOR Praveen Chaturvedi, Adv. Tarun Kumar and Adv. Kaushik Mukherjee.
Counsel for the Respondent: Adv. Kumar Vaibhaw, AOR Devina Sehgal and Adv. Yatharth Kansal.
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