IMPORTANT POINTS :
The murder was committed by the accused/appellant while committing rape on the victim after trespassing into her dwelling house. Thereafter, he had stolen the gold articles belonging to the victim and pledged it in a false name. He is a person who has married twice and has children. He was aged 29 years at the time of incident. There is no evidence to prove that he had any criminal antecedents. The offence might have been committed in a sudden rush of blood i.e., to commit robbery and rape.some of the illustrative principles which have emerged are:(1) the age of the accused (Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab, para 206);
(2) the possibility of reform (Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab, para 206), (Rajesh Kumar v. State, para 74);
(3) the socio-economic background of the accused (Mulla v. State of U.P., paras 80 and 81);
(4) the circumstances in which the crime has been committed (Dharmendrasinh v. State of Gujarat, para 20);
(5) the quality of the evidence which had prevailed with the Court in upholding the conviction (Santosh Kumar Satishbhushan Bariyar v. State of Maharashtra, para 56 and
(6) lack of criminal antecedents (Gudda v. State of M.P., para 31);

Crl. Appeal No.88/2014 is filed by the accused in SC No.682/2012 of the Sessions Court, Thiruvananthapuram by which he was convicted and sentenced to be hanged by the neck till his death for the offence u/S.302 I.P.C., imprisonment for life for offence u/S.376 I.P.C., rigorous imprisonment for 10 years for offence u/S.449 I.P.C., rigorous imprisonment for 10 years for offence u/S.392 of I.P.C. and rigorous imprisonment for 3 years for offence u/S.419 I.P.C. The sentences were to run concurrently and the sentence of death imposed on the accused was subject to confirmation of this Court. DSR No.1/13 has been placed before us for confirmation regarding the death sentence imposed on the accused.

2. Before considering the Death Sentence Reference (DSR), it would be appropriate to consider the appeal filed by the accused.

3. The victim in the case is a girl aged 15 years. According to the prosecution, the accused trespassed into her house with an intention to commit rape and theft, committed murder by throttling her and thereafter tied a towel tightly around her neck to ensure her death. He committed theft of a gold necklace and a gold ring from her body. The incident came to be known when the victim's mother came back to her house at about 5.30 pm on 6/3/2012. She found the victim lying dead on the floor of her room. On hearing her loud cry, people in the locality came. PW1 went to the police station and gave Ext.P1 FI statement which was recorded by PW30, the Sub Inspector of Police, Vattappara Police Station, who registered Ext.P1(a) FIR.

4. PW31 conducted investigation and inquest on the body of the deceased at the place of occurrence itself and Ext.P7 is the inquest report. Postmortem conducted on the deceased revealed offence u/S. 302, 450 and 392 of I.P.C. Initially the FIR was registered u/S. 174 of Cr. P.C and after postmortem, S.174 of Cr. P.C was deleted incorporating Sections 302, 450 and 392 of I.P.C. The investigation was taken over by PW34, Circle Inspector of Police, Venjaramoodu on 8/3/2012. He prepared Ext.P10 scene mahazar on 9/3/2012 at 10.30 am. The material objects were forwarded to the Court and he filed a report incorporating offence u/S. 511 of 376 I.P.C. The accused was arrested on 13/3/2012 at 3 p.m. On the basis of his disclosure statement Ext.P11(a), MO6 gold chain and MO7 gold ring pledged by him were recovered from Kailath Financiers, Vattappara. Ext.P11 is the mahazar prepared for the same. After completing the investigation, PW34 submitted final report before the Judicial First Class Magistrate-I, Nedumangad which in turn was committed to the Sessions Court. The accused denied the charges levelled against him.

5. To prove the prosecution case, PW1 to PW35 were examined, Exts.P1 to P38 were marked and MO1 to MO13 were produced and identified. The Sessions Court after completing the procedural formalities convicted the accused as stated above.

6. From the evidence of PW27, the Assistant Professor of Forensic Medicine and Deputy Surgeon who conducted autopsy of the deceased, it is rather clear that the deceased died on account of throttling. Ext.P20 is the post-mortem certificate and following were the ante-mortem injuries noticed by PW27:-

“1. Cresentic abrasion 0.7x0.2cm, obliquely placed on the right side of front of neck, (convexity to the right side), with its upper inner end 7.5cm above inner end of right collar bone.

2. Abrasion 2x 0.3cm, obliquely placed on the right side of front of neck, its upper outer end being 4.5cm outer to midline and 2.5cm below lower jaw border.

3. Abrasion 0.5x0.5cm on right side of front of neck 0.5cm inner to injury number (2).

4. Abrasion 1.5x0.3cm, vertically placed on middle of front of neck 5.5cm below the chin.

5. Two cresentic linear abrasions 0.6 cm long, obliquely paced parallel to one another, side by side and 1cm apart, on the middle of front of neck (their convexities directed to the left), the lower inner end of the outer one being 3 cm above the inner en