New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India on September 15 reduced the death sentence of a man who allegedly murdered a 23-year-old woman in Kerala five years ago.
Soumya worked in a mall in Ernakulam, the commercial capital of the southern Indian state. She was allegedly pushed off a train by Govindachamy who jumped after her, hit her with a stone and then raped her in her wounded state.
In January 2014, the Kerala High Court upheld the death sentence granted to Govindachamy by a Fast-track court in Thrissur.
The Supreme Court, hearing Govindachamy’s petition, said that there was evidence of rape but not enough of murder. It then reduced his sentence to 14 years in jail.
Soumya was was traveling from Ernakulam to Shorannur on February, 1, 2011. The woman’s coach of a passenger train coach was almost empty. Govindachamy molested her and later pushed her out of the train, and also jumped off. He then walked toward her and raped her. Soumya succumbed to injuries on February 6 at a government hospital.
The prosecution told the court that Govindachamy was a serial offender from Tamil Nadu and he had tried to rob her.
At her home in Kerala’s Thrissur, her mother broke down as reporters asked her to respond to the court order. “He did this to my daughter. And he will not even be hanged…My heart is broken. All this while I thought we will get justice. Nothing,” she sobbed.
The family blamed lawyers for botching up the case, ndtv.com reported.