The Supreme Court has agreed to hear again the plea of accused Vasant Dupare, who was convicted of raping and brutally killing a four-year-old girl in Wadi area of Nagpur. The court said that it can reopen such cases if important legal steps were not properly followed during sentencing. Dupare was found guilty of raping and killing a four-year-old girl in 2008.

 

He had lured the child with chocolates and later killed her by crushing her head with stones. On Monday, a bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Karol, and Sandeep Mehta said they will hear Dupare’s plea again. They noted that certain important procedures were not followed when the court decided to give him the death penalty. The judges referred to a 2022 judgment (Manoj vs Madhya Pradesh), which says trial courts must check an accused person’s mental and psychological condition before giving a death sentence. Since this was not done in Dupare’s case, the court said it must look into it again.

 

“This power is used to make sure a person facing the death sentence is treated fairly,” the judges said. They also made it clear that not all old cases will be reopened—only those where serious mistakes in following the law are found. While the court did not change Dupare’s conviction, it set aside the earlier decision on sentencing and sent the case to the Chief Justice for a fresh hearing. Dupare was sentenced to death in 2014. His requests for a review and mercy were turned down in 2017, 2022, and 2023. 

 

 

Mercy petition rejected by President Dupare approached the Supreme Court, but his appeals and review petitions were rejected, including one in 2017. He later filed a mercy petition with the President, which was also rejected. In 2023, Dupare filed a writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution, seeking reconsideration of his punishment. On Monday, the Supreme Court accepted his plea and stayed the execution.

 

 

On April 3, 2008, Dupare, a resident of Wadi, raped and murdered a four-year-old girl. In 2010, the Additional Sessions Court in Nagpur sentenced him to death. He appealed to the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court, which sent the case back in 2011. In February 2012, the Sessions Court again handed him the death penalty. The