Kochi: Over five years after the brutal rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman, who was pushed out of a moving train, Kerala High Court today upheld the death sentence awarded by a Fast Track Court to Govindachamy, saying his conduct and behaviour was “repulsive to the collective conscience of society”.

Dismissing the appeal by Govindachamy, a division bench comprising justices T Ramachandran Nair and B Kemal Pasha, held that “the cruel tendency of the accused and his total disregard for human life is writ large from the manner of attack and the nature of injuries caused on the deceased”.  

“His conduct and behaviour was ‘repulsive to the collective conscience of society. Murder was committed in a most cruel, inhuman, extreme brutal manner. If maximum punishment was not imposed in this rarest of rare cases, court will be failing on its duty”, the bench held in its 359-page judgement.

The victim employed at a shopping mall here was on her way home in neighbouring Thrissur district on Feb 1, 2008 night when the incident occurred.

She had taken the Ernakulam-Shornur passenger train after her work.