Kerala HC reduces death sentence of person accused of murder, rape

A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Wednesday commuted the death sentence awarded to Vembayam resident Anil Kumar and sentenced him to life term for murdering a Thiruvallam native and raping and assaulting his wife in 2016, who continues to be in a vegetative state. Anil Kumar had been awarded death sentence in 2019 by the Additional Sessions Judge, Thiruvananthapuram.

During this, he will not be eligible for parole for 30 years. The court further upheld the life sentence the sessions court awarded to Anil Kumar’s associate and Tamil Nadu native Chandrasekharan.

The sentences awarded to the accused persons shall run concurrently.

While upholding their conviction, the Division Bench of Justice A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Jobin Sebastian commuted Anil Kumar’s death sentence based on a mitigation study report that suggested the possibility of reformation. Moreover, the death sentence is reserved only for those cases that qualify as the “rarest of the rare,” the court said.