The Supreme Court on Tuesday commuted to life term the death sentence awarded to a rape-murder convict.

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The SC order comes just weeks after a similar appeal filed on behalf of Kolkata rape-murder convict, Dhananjoy Chatterjee, was rejected by the court. Chatterjee was hanged on August 14.

A Bench comprising Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice A R Lakshmanan partially allowed the appeal of Rahul alias Raosaheb, who has been convicted of raping and murdering a four-year-old girl in 1999.

Appearing for the accused, counsels K Radhakrishnan and Sudhir Kulshrestha said the accused was only 24 years of age when the crime was committed. They also pointed out that the prosecution's case was entirely based on circumstantial evidence.

A Pune court had categorised the case as rarest of rare as the accused, after violating a defenseless girl, had murdered her. The Bombay high court had upheld the conviction and confirmed the death sentence.