The Supreme Court of India has granted conditional bail to Piyush Verma, the son of a school manager, who was convicted nearly 13 years ago for the sexual assault and murder of a sixth-grade student in Kanpur.
Justices Suryakant and K.V Vishwanathan of the Supreme Court set a hearing date for the appeal against the life sentence on September 11, acknowledging the need for immediate relief due to procedural delays.
The incident occurred on September 27, 2010, at a school in Rawatpur, Kanpur, where the young girl was assaulted and murdered. The investigation, conducted by the CBCID, named Piyush as the main suspect. In addition to Piyush, the school manager Chandrapal, his elder son Mukesh, and a clerk named Santosh were also charged.
The Sessions Court had sentenced Piyush to life imprisonment on December 5, 2018, while Mukesh and Santosh were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and failure to report a crime, receiving one-year imprisonment each. Chandrapal was acquitted.
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The High Court later pardoned the sentences of Mukesh and Santosh but upheld Piyush’s conviction. Piyush has been in prison for nearly 13 years and eight months. According to his lawyer, Ghulam Rabbani, the Supreme Court acknowledged the lengthy duration of the ongoing appeal and ordered Piyush’s release on bail, instructing him to surrender his passport to the Sessions Court as part of the bail conditions.
