President Murmu Rejects Mercy Plea in 2012 Toddler Rape-Murder Case

New Delhi: President Droupadi Murmu has rejected the mercy petition of a man convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing a two-year-old girl in Maharashtra in 2012. This is the third mercy plea rejected by the President after she assumed office on July 25, 2022. On October 3, 2019, the Supreme Court affirmed the death sentence awarded to Ravi Ashok Ghumare, saying he had no control over his “carnal desires” and surpassed all natural, social and legal limits just to satiate his sexual hunger. In its verdict, a three-judge bench led by Justice Surya Kant (now Chief Justice of India), by a majority verdict of 2:1, said Ghumare had “ruthlessly finished” a life which was yet to bloom and his act of committing unnatural offence with the two-year-old exhibits “a dirty and perverted mind, showcasing a horrifying tale of brutality”. Ghumare’s mercy plea was rejected by the President on November 6, according to the status of the mercy petition disclosed by the Rashtrapati Bhavan. “Having said that, it may be seen that the victim was barely a two-year-old baby whom the appellant (Ravi) kidnapped and apparently kept on assaulting for over four to five hours till she breathed her last. The appellant, who had no control over his carnal desires, surpassed all natural, social and legal limits just to satiate his sexual hunger. He ruthlessly finished a life which was yet to bloom,” Justice Surya Kant had said, while writing the verdict for himself and (now retired) Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman. The appellant, instead of showing fatherly love, affection and protection to the child against the evils of society, made her the victim of lust, the majority verdict said. “It’s a case where trust has been betrayed, and social values are impaired. The unnatural sex with a two-year-old toddler exhibits a dirty and perverted mind, showcasing a horrifying tale of brutality,” the verdict said. According to the prosecution, the incident took place on March 6, 2012, in Indiranagar locality of Jalna city in Maharashtra. Ghumare had lured the victim with a chocolate. The trial court had convicted him and awarded the death penalty on September 16, 2015. His death sentence was upheld by the Bombay High Court in January 2016.



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