Two In A Month: Supreme Court, Kerala HC Acquits Death Row Convicts
The Supreme Court on Tuesday (January 28) acquitted the death row convict Chandrabhan Sudam Sanap alias Chowkya in the Mumbai techie Esther Anuhya rape and murder case. The top court has also instructed the Maharashtra government to release the convict right away. Interestingly, this is the second death row convict being acquitted in the case. In January this year, the Kerala High Court acquitted and released Jomon, second accused in rape and murder of woman and daughter in Kumily, from Viyyur Central Prison in Thrissur.
Esther Anuhya Case
Esther, a 23-year old woman hailing from Andhra Pradesh, who was working in Tata Consultancy Services or TCS Mumbai, had returned to the city on January 5, 2014 after visiting her family in Machilipatnam. She arrived at the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) in suburban Kurla early in the morning. She met Sanap, who pretending to be a taxi driver, offered to drop her at the hostel in Andheri for Rs. 300. Later, Sanap raped and murdered her at a secluded spot along the Eastern Express Highway in Bhandup. Further, she stole her luggage and disposed her body.
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Parents filed missing persons case, and on January 17, Esther’s body in a burnt and decomposed state was found. The Railway Police has identified Sanap as the prime suspect after spotting him in the CCTV footage from the area along with Anuhya. Sanap already had a history registered cases regarding bag lifting and stealing. He was arrested on March 3, 2014 and in October 2015, the Sessions Court convicted him of death penalty citing it as ‘rarest of rare’ case.
Subsequently, Sanap had approached the High Court against the death, but it upheld the Sessions Court verdict in December 2018 stating that the poses destruction of social trust and shocks the social conscience, substantiating the call for capital punishment. “Esther was done to death by the accused for no fault of her own, except for a reason that she is a woman, and she fell prey to the sinister design of the accused to fulfil his lust. The attitude of the accused, according to us, deserves a death sentence,” The Hindu quotes as the Bench is saying.
Rejection of appeal in the High Court led Sanap to approach Supreme Court. Today, the apex court acquitted him after finding gaps in the prosecution’s story.
Rape-Murder of Mother-Daughter in Kerala
It was in December 2, 2007, Rajendran and Jomon broke into the house in Idukki’s Peermade where Molly (55) and Neenu (22) lived alone with latter’s seven-month-old baby. The duo then used a cloth to suffocate the victims and raped them. When they resisted, they were brutally attacked and were hacked and beaten to death. As per Police FIR, Rajendran and Joman even raped the dead bodies.
The incident came to light on next day, when Neenu’s child crawled to the courtyard of the house and a neighbour spotted blood marks on the child’s body. Though there were no eyewitness to pinpoint, Rajendran got caught with circumstantial evidence and statement by local people. Both Rajendran and Jomon were arrested in December itself. But, Jomon jumped bail and was able to rearrest only in June 2012 which impeded his prosecution.
Rajendran, the prime suspect was handed death penalty by the Thodupuzha Additional Sessions Court (II) on June 20, 2012 and in December 2020, Jomon, the second accused has been awarded the death sentence the same court. Though Rajendran sought appeal in the High Court, it upheld the capital punishment imposed by the Sessions Court.
However, on January 9, setting aside the Session Court’s verdict, a Division Bench of Kerala High Court comprising Justice P.B. Suresh Kumar and Justice Jobin Sebastian acquitted Jomon stating that the circumstantial evidence did not satisfy to consider the him was guilty of the charges.
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Inmates on Death Row
According to Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics Report published by Project 39A at National Law University, as of 2023, there 561 prisoners were living under a sentence of death in India, the highest population on death row in a single calendar year close to two decades.
“Acquittals and remands by the Supreme Court and the High Courts in 2023 indicate significant concerns with the quality of police investigations and appreciation of evidence by lower courts in death penalty cases,” the report states. The top court criticised lapses in the investigations and trials in certain cases and began to adhere on reports regarding the psychiatric evaluation, jail conduct and life circumstances of the accused from previous years while partaking commutation decisions.
