The Supreme Court on Wednesday, October 8, set aside the conviction and death sentence of Dhasvanth in the rape and murder of a seven-year-old in Chennai in 2017. A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Karol and Sandeep Mehta delivered the verdict, stating that the “prosecution has miserably failed to prove the vital circumstances."
Dhasvanth, a 23-year-old Chennai-based techie, was awarded the death penalty by a Chengalpet court in 2018 for burning the little girl’s body after committing rape. The Madras High Court upheld the conviction and sentence, which the accused challenged before the apex court.
Dhasvanth was provided with legal assistance by the Square Circle Clinic, NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad (formerly Project 39A), which provides pro-bono defence to those awarded the death penalty.
Setting aside the conviction, the bench said, “We are of the view that the prosecution has miserably failed to prove the vital circumstances, that is, last seen together, suspicious [...] of the appellant captured in the video footage of the CCTV camera, the confessional disclosure statement, the FSL report [...] which constituted the entire edifice of the prosecution case on which the conviction of the appellant was based. The impugned judgment is set aside. The appeal is allowed. The conviction and sentence awarded to the appellant are hereby set aside. Appellant is acquitted. He shall be released from custody forthwith, if not wanted in any other case.”
The child went missing from the apartment complex she stayed in with her family in Mugalivakkam on February 6, 2017. The Chennai police arrested Dhasvanth, who also lived in the same building. He had apparently lured her away with a dog, and then sexually assaulted and killed her.
In December 2017, on the very first day of the trial, Dhasvanth was reprimanded by the court for ‘confessing’ to the crime so that the trial could be done away with. He wrote a six-page letter to the court, which was rejected by Chengalpet Mahila court special judge P Velmurugan, who also said that the accused “could not play with the courts.”
Meanwhile, the techie seemed to show little remorse for his actions as the child’s father told TNM that he had been repeatedly threatened by his daughter’s alleged killer in the court premises.
He said that Dhasvanth had threatened to murder his son, the deceased child's younger brother, as well.
The most significant turning point in the case came on December 2, 2017, when Dhasvanth’s mother was found bludgeoned to death. Dhasvanth was out on bail at the time in the child's rape case. He allegedly killed his mother and escaped with her jewellery, which he split with David and James, two jailmates from Puzhal Central Prison whom he had befriended. He was later acquitted in this case, citing a lack of evidence.