Convict Mohan Singh was awarded death penalty in February this year. (File)
New Delhi:
The Supreme Court Wednesday stayed the execution of the death sentence awarded to a man, convicted in a murder case for strangulating a woman, cutting her abdomen and taking out some organs from her body.
“Leave granted. In the meantime, there shall be stay of execution of death sentence. Call for records,” said a bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde, which was hearing an appeal filed by convict Mohan Singh.
The bench told senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, who was appearing for Singh, that it has not come across a murder case where the accused has done the act of cutting the victim’s abdomen.
“Is he (Singh) some kind of a monster or what?,” the bench, also comprising Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, said.
“Your client has done the most unpleasant act. Why did he cut open the abdomen and put cloth in the stomach? Is he some kind of a surgeon or what?,” the bench observed.
Mr Luthra said Singh was working as a security guard.
The top court was hearing an appeal against the August 7 verdict of the Rajasthan High Court which had confirmed the death sentence awarded to Singh by a trial court in the case lodged in 2019.
According to police, an FIR was lodged in May last year after a woman’s body, which was tied with wires, was found in a bag.
During the trial, Singh had claimed he had not committed any murder and was falsely implicated in the case.
The trial court had convicted and awarded him death penalty in February this year.
Before the high court, the counsel appearing for the state had said that Singh was earlier convicted in another murder case.
The high court, while upholding the trial court’s verdict awarding him death penalty, had referred to the post mortem report of the victim as per which several organs, including liver, were missing from her body.
The high court had noted in its verdict that the convict had cut the victim’s abdomen, put her cloths in her abdomen and then stitched it with a wire.
