President Murmu Rejects Mercy Plea in 2012 Toddler Rape-Murder Case
New Delhi: President Droupadi Murmu rejected the mercy petition of a man convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering a two-year-old girl in Maharashtra in 2012. This is the third pardon request rejected by the President after taking office on July 25, 2022.
On October 3, 2019, the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty given to Ravi Ashok Ghumare, saying that he had no control over his “sexual desires” and crossed all natural, social and legal limits just to satisfy his sexual hunger.
The three-judge bench, led by Justice Surya Kant (currently Chief Justice of India), in a 2:1 majority verdict, said that Ghumare had “brutally ended” a nascent life and that his unnatural act of committing a crime with the two-year-old boy showed “a dirty and perverted mind displaying a horrific history of brutality”.
According to the status of the mercy petition announced by the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Ghumare’s mercy plea was rejected by the President on November 6.
“Having said this, it can be seen that the victim was just a two-year-old baby and the appellant (Ravi) abducted and continued to attack her for more than four to five hours until she breathed her last. The appellant, who had no control over his sexual desires, crossed all natural, social and legal limits just to satisfy his sexual hunger. He brutally ended a life that was yet to blossom,” Justice Surya Kant said while writing the verdict for him and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman (now retired) while writing the verdict for him.
In the majority decision, it was stated that the plaintiff made the child a victim of lust instead of showing him paternal love, affection and protection against the evils of society.
“This is a case where trust was betrayed and social values were damaged. Unnatural sex with a two-year-old little boy demonstrates a dirty and perverted mind and reveals a horrific story of brutality,” the decision said.
According to the prosecutor, the incident took place on March 6, 2012, in Indiranagar locality of Jalna city of Maharashtra. Ghumare had lured the victim with chocolate.
The trial court convicted him and sentenced him to death on September 16, 2015. The death penalty was upheld by the Bombay High Court in January 2016.
