The Punjab and Haryana High Court has set aside the death sentences awarded to two men convicted in the 2019 rape and murder of a seven-and-a-half-year-old girl in Ludhiana’s Doraha. Citing significant procedural irregularities, the High Court has remanded the case back to the trial court, directing it to resume proceedings from the stage of recording the statements of the accused and to deliver a fresh judgment.
The division bench of Justice Anoop Chitkara and Justice Sukhvinder Kaur, in an order dated April 6, observed that the trial court failed to put critical incriminating evidence—including a DNA report and post-mortem findings—to the accused during their examination. This omission, the High Court noted, caused “prejudice to the accused” and rendered the questioning “highly defective.”
The High Court’s decision centered on the trial court’s failure to adhere to Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), now Section 351 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). This statutory requirement ensures that an accused person is given a fair opportunity to explain every piece of incriminating evidence appearing against them in the prosecution’s case.
“It is not a case where the trial court had put all the incriminating circumstances to the accused,” the bench observed. The court emphasized that the objective of this procedure is to provide the accused a chance to explain the circumstances appearing in the evidence.
The High Court pointed out that despite the trial court relying heavily on the DNA report to convict the duo, that very report was never put to the accused for an explanation.
“The DNA report is the most crucial document, and if it is read in evidence without affording an opportunity to the accused… it is most likely to cause prejudice,” the court stated.
Furthermore, the bench noted that the accused were not questioned regarding the findings of sexual assault and associated injuries documented by the medical team during the post-mortem examination. Referencing the victim affectionately as ‘Laadli’, the court remarked:
“Laadli was murdered after she was subjected to rape, and had she not been sexually assaulted, there would have been no motive to conceal evidence by killing her. Thus, primarily, we are dealing with the case of rape, and the most important question, i.e., the evidence that the victim was raped, was not put to the accused.”
While setting aside the 2023 conviction and capital punishment, the High Court clarified that these deficiencies amount to “irregularities” that are “curable.”
The trial court has been directed to:
- Re-examine both accused by posing specific, separate questions regarding all incriminating evidence under the relevant legal provisions.
- Afford the accused an opportunity to lead their defense evidence within a reasonable timeframe.
- Pass a fresh judgment in accordance with the law after hearing both parties.
The case originated from an FIR registered in March 2019. According to the prosecution, the victim was abducted by her cousin on March 9, 2019, in Doraha, Ludhiana. He was allegedly joined by a co-accused, and both raped the child in an uninhabited godown. The victim was subsequently strangulated and struck with bricks, leading to her death.
The trial court had awarded the death penalty to both men in 2023, which led to the murder reference for confirmation and the subsequent appeals by the convicts that resulted in the current High Court order.
