President Droupadi Murmu rejects mercy petition of man convicted for raping, killing 4-year-old girl

President Droupadi Murmu has rejected the mercy petition of a man convicted for raping and stoning to death a four-year-old girl in Maharashtra in 2008, according to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The Supreme Court had on May 3, 2017, dismissed the review petition of Vasanta Sampat Dupare (then 55 years old) and sent him to the gallows.

The President’s Secretariat had on March 28 this year received a recommendation from Union Home Ministry in the matter.

The apex court had in 2017 held that “the aggravating circumstances and the barbaric manner in which the four-year-old was killed, clearly outweigh the mitigating circumstances”.

It had on November 26, 2014, upheld the trial court’s as well as the Bombay High Court’s decision of awarding death sentence to Maharashtra resident Dupare in the 2008 rape and murder case.