On Tuesday , Gujarat High Court commuted death penalty of Keshav Joshi to life imprisonment. Joshi had been awarded death penalty for raping his two-and-a-half-year old niece and leaving her to die in 2007 in Halol town of Panchmahal district. Bench headed by Justice R R Tripathi commuted Joshi’s death penalty after saying that “his case does not fall in the rarest of the rare category”, said his counsel. According to the case details, the toddler was raped and then thrown into thorny bushes by Joshi, who was then working as a private security guard. The child was admitted to SSG hospital, Vadodara, where he succumbed to her injuries. Joshi and the family of the victim both hailed from Nepal.
The accused was beaten up by people and then handed over to police. He was booked for rape and murder. A trial court in Godhra heard the case and awarded death penalty to Joshi in 2013. Joshi challenged his conviction before the high court, which concluded that there is ample evidence against Joshi to prove his guilty.
However, the case does not fall in the rarest of the rare category and hence the extreme punishment was commuted to life imprisonment.
On Tuesday , Gujarat High Court commuted death penalty of Keshav Joshi to life imprisonment. Joshi had been awarded death penalty for raping his two-and-a-half-year old niece and leaving her to die in 2007 in Halol town of Panchmahal district. Bench headed by Justice R R Tripathi commuted Joshi’s death penalty after saying that “his case does not fall in the rarest of the rare category”, said his counsel. According to the case details, the toddler was raped and then thrown into thorny bushes by Joshi, who was then working as a private security guard. The child was admitted to SSG hospital, Vadodara, where he succumbed to her injuries. Joshi and the family of the victim both hailed from Nepal.
The accused was beaten up by people and then handed over to police. He was booked for rape and murder. A trial court in Godhra heard the case and awarded death penalty to Joshi in 2013. Joshi challenged his conviction before the high court, which concluded that there is ample evidence against Joshi to prove his guilty.
However, the case does not fall in the rarest of the rare category and hence the extreme punishment was commuted to life imprisonment.
