On Thursday, a three‑judge bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and Vijay Bishnoi upheld Waris’s conviction for repeatedly raping his six‑year‑old stepdaughter and throttling her to death, but replaced his death sentence with imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life without any possibility of remission. The court said the crime was of "the utmost gravity" yet cited mitigating circumstances and the prospect of reformation as reasons to forgo capital punishment, deeming a life term without remission the appropriate punishment.
The case stemmed from allegations that Waris, the stepfather, sexually assaulted the child inside the family home and later strangled her, as confirmed by post‑mortem findings of asphyxia and genital injuries. The mother, his wife, was the sole eyewitness. Waris was convicted by the trial court and sentenced to death, a verdict later affirmed by the Madhya Pradesh High Court as a "rarest of rare" case. The Supreme Court also addressed a procedural flaw in the mother’s cross‑examination, ordering a fresh cross‑examination in June 2025, which it found remedied before confirming the conviction and imposing the life‑without‑remission sentence.
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