IMPORTANT POINTS
Even in review petition Court can permit petitioner to adduce additional mitigating circumstances.
Judgment of conviction and order of sentence passed on the same day by trial court, does not necessarily vitiate the proceedings.
Cumulative effect of all aggravating and mitigating circumstances will determine whether a case falls in the category of rarest of rare cases.
While considering aggravating and mitigating circumstances, Cumulative effect of both the aggravating and mitigating circumstances judicial discretion should not be fettered by attempting to make excessive enumeration, in one way or another.

JUDGMENT :

Uday Umesh Lalit, J.

1. These Review Petitions are directed against the Judgment and Order dated 26.11.2014 passed by this Court in Criminal Appeal Nos.2486-87 of 2014 affirming conviction of the petitioner for the offences punishable under Sections 302, 363, 367, 376(2)(f) and 201 IPC and various sentences imposed upon the petitioner including death sentence under Section 302 IPC and life imprisonment under Section 376(2)(f) IPC. In view of the decision of this Court in Mohd. Arif @ Ashfaq v. Registrar, Supreme Court of India and others, (2014) 9 SCC 737 these review petitions were listed in Court for oral hearing.

2. The facts leading to the filing of criminal appeals in this Court including the nature and quality of evidence on record have been dealt with and considered in the Judgment of this Court dated 26.11.2014, (2015) 1 SCC 253. The charge against the petitioner was that the victim, a minor girl of four years was raped and battered to death by the petitioner. The petitioner allegedly lured the victim by giving her chocolates, kidnapped her and after satisfying his lust caused crushing injuries to her with the help of stones weighing about 8.5 kg and 7.5 kg. The prosecution relied upon the evidence of PW2 Manisha, PW3 Minal, PW5 Vandana and PW6 Baby Sharma who had seen the petitioner taking away the victim on a bicycle on the fateful day. In his disclosure statement under Section 27 of the Evidence Act the petitioner had shown the place where dead body of the victim was lying and the tap where he had washed his blood stained clothes. The medical evidence on record was dealt with in paragraph 14 of the Judgment under review as under :-

“14. According to the doctor, he had found during internal examination that under scalp haematoma was present over left frontal and right frontal region of size 4cm × 4cm, dark red, the frontal bone was fractured and depressed, fracture line extended up to occipital bone through right temporal and parietal bone fracture on interior and middle cranial side. The subarachnoid haemorrhage was present all over the brain surface and meninges were congested. In his opinion, the cause of death was head injury, associated with the injury on the genital region. He has testified that the two stones that were sent to him in sealed cover along with the requisition, Ext.62, for opinion, could have been used to cause the injuries on the victim. He has weighed the stones, which are, 8.5kg and 7.5kg, and has opined that there had been forceful sexual intercourse.”

3. After taking into account the evidence and the circumstances on record, this Court in the Judgment under review concluded as under:-

“On a critical analysis of the evidence on record, we are convinced that the circumstances that have been clearly established are that the appellant was seen in the courtyard where the minor girl and other children were playing; that the appellant was seen taking the deceased on his bicycle; that he had gone to the grocery shop owned by PW-6 to buy Mint chocolate along with her; that the accused had told PW2 that the child was the daughter of his friend and he was going to ‘Tekdi-Wadi’ along with the girl; that the appellant had led to discovery of the dead body of the deceased, the place where he had washed his clothes and at his instance the stones smeared with blood were recovered; that the medical report clearly indicates about the injuries sustained by the deceased on her body; that the injuries sustained on the private parts have been stated by the doctor to have been caused by forcible sexual intercourse; that the stones that were seized were smeared with blood and the medical evidence corroborates the fact that injuries could have been caused by battering with stones; that the chemical analysis report shows that the blood group found on the clothes of the appellant; that the appellant has not offered any explanation with regard to the recovery made at his instance; and that nothing has been stated i