Madras High Court acquits death row convict from POCSO Act charge
The Madras High Court has acquitted a death row convict of POCSO Act charges while upholding his murder conviction. The court modified his sentence from death to life imprisonment, citing a lack of direct evidence.
Why it matters
This case highlights the judicial process regarding circumstantial evidence and the application of capital punishment in India.
The Madras High Court has acquitted a death row convict from the charge of aggravated sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 and modified his capital punishment to life imprisonment only for the charge of murdering a nine-year-old girl child.
Justices Anita Sumanth and Sunder Mohan passed the verdict while partly allowing an appeal preferred by the convict Kakka alias Karunas in the 2024 Puducherry POCSO Act case, in which the second accused Harikrishnan alias Vivekanandan had died by suicide, inside the prison, before commencement of trial.
A special court for POCSO Act cases had, on April 30, 2026, convicted the appellant and sentenced him to death both for the charge under Section 6 of the POCSO Act and Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code. However, the High Court confirmed his conviction only for murder and modified the punishment to life sentence.
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