Representative Image.
New Delhi: Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the death penalty awarded to Vasanta Sampat Dupare, accused of raping a 4-year-old girl and then subsequently killing her. The Supreme Court noted that the depraved and barbaric nature of the crime committed by the 55-year-old man called for the death sentence.
In 2008, Dupare had lured the minor girl by showing her chocolates. He, then, raped and killed her brutally by crushing her head with a heavy rock in Nagpur, Maharashtra. After killing the victim, Dupare had hidden her dead body. Testimonies of several witnesses, coupled with other scientific and circumstantial evidence, helped the SC upheld the death sentence.
“The rape of a minor girl child is nothing but a monstrous burial of her dignity in the darkness. It is a crime against the holy body of a girl child and the soul of the society and such a crime is aggravated by the manner in which it has been committed. The nature of the crime and the manner in which it has been committed speak about its uncommonness. The crime speaks of depravity, degradation and uncommonality. It is diabolical and barbaric,” the court had held in 2014.
Dupare was handed down the death penalty by the Bombay High Court in 2012 and was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2014. Later, Dupare filed a review petition, citing his mental illness during the incarceration. The Supreme Court, however, observed that the nature of his crime was grave and deserved no reconsideration.