Chandigarh: Citing serious procedural lapses in the criminal trial in the rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl in Ludhiana in March 2019, Punjab and Haryana high court has set aside the death sentences awarded to two accused and remanded the matter back to trial court.HC has ordered that trial shall resume from the stage of recording statements of the accused and a fresh judgement should be passed.According to the prosecution, the two accused lured the child away on the pretext of giving her candies and raped and killed her. One of them was her cousin. The minor’s half-clad body, with her head smashed, was found in a vacant warehouse near Doraha railway lines in Ludhiana.In March 2023, a fast-track court in Ludhiana convicted both accused for murder, kidnapping and aggravated penetrative sexual assault, and sentenced them to death. Medical evidence presented during the trial confirmed sexual assault and death was caused by strangulation and head injuries.In its detailed order, an HC division bench comprising Justice Anoop Chitkara and Justice Sukhvinder Kaur ruled that the trial court failed to properly question the accused under Section 313 CrPC, thereby violating principles of a fair trial. The bench also noticed that crucial incriminating evidence including DNA reports, forensic findings, and specific details of the alleged sexual assault, were not properly put to the accused during their examination.A conviction based on what the accused was never asked to explain is bad in law, the bench said.HC, however, made it clear that all these deficiencies amount to irregularities and are curable. “Non-compliance… may gravely imperil the validity of the trial,” held the bench.
