2 youths get death penalty

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sentenced to death two friends, both aged 22, for raping and murdering their 18-year-old neighbour in a Karnataka village six years ago.

While ordering the execution of Shivu and Shiva, the court described them as ‘sexually obsessed’ youths, who were emboldened by their earlier escape after attempting to rape the sisters of the 18-year-old victim.

Both the trial court and Karnataka High Court had found the offence committed by these young boys to qualify as ‘rarest of rare’ warranting the extreme penalty.

Rejecting the appeal of the two convicts, a bench of justices comprising Arijit Pasayat and Lokeshwar Singh Panta observed that “anything less than a penalty of the greatest severity for any serious crime is thought to be a measure of toleration that is unwarranted and unwise”.

The judgment assumes significance in view of the divergent views expressed by different benches on capital punishment.