The Kerala High Court on Monday upheld the death sentence awarded to Ameer-Ul-Islam, a migrant labourer from Assam, for the rape and murder of a Dalit law student in Kerala’s Perumbavoor in 2016.
A division bench comprising Justice PB Suresh Kumar and Justice S Manu confirmed the verdict of the sessions court while dismissing the appeal filed by the convict.
In December 2017, the Ernakulam Sessions Court found Ameerul guilty of all offences charged against him, save for those under Section 201 of the IPC (causing disappearance of evidence) and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 2015.The Sessions Court sentenced him to death and also imposed four terms of rigorous imprisonment which were to run concurrently.
While imposing the death sentence, the Sessions Court had held thus:”The brutal acts of the convict definitely fit this case within the umbrella of “rarest of rare cases” on par with the Nirbhaya’s case in Delhi. Judged by the above standards, when the collective conscience of the community is so shocked , it is the duty of the court to inflict death penalty, irrespective of personal opinion as regards desirability of imposing death penalty. In the interest of justice, the law leans in accordance with the perception of society and not “judge –centric”. Hence, this is a fit case for awarding the death sentence to the accused….”
Subsequently, Ameerul moved an appeal before the Kerala High Court challenging his conviction and sentence. He also sought a re-investigation of the case by a central agency. The argument of the convict in the appeal was that he did not commit the crime and the trial court considered the evidence fabricated by the police against him.
The mutilated corpse of the victim who was a student at the Ernakulam Government Law College, was found in her house at Perumbavoor in the morning of April 28, 2016. According to the prosecution, the accused committed the crime by trespassing into the woman’s house. The post-mortem report stated that the victim was brutally raped, with 38 wounds found on her body