The Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of a man in connection with the rape and murder of a minor girl after his family challenged Kerala High Court’s ruling in a bid to clear the name of the convict who had passed away during the pendency of the appeal.

Abdul Nassar was handed the death sentence by a trial court for the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl in Kerala in 2012. The high court had affirmed the trial court’s ruling.

Aggrieved, Nassar’s family moved the Supreme Court but he passed away on January 16 last year. Criminal proceedings usually end with the death of an accused or a convict, but Nassar’s family chose to continue the legal battle to erase what they saw as a stigma attached to his name.

However, a three-judge bench of Justices B.R. Gavai, K.V. Viswanathan and Sandeep Mehta upheld Nassar’s conviction after noting that the prosecution had been able to produce convincing and cogent circumstantial evidence to link him to the crime despite the lack ofeyewitnesses.

“We are of the view that the chain of incriminating circumstances required to bring home the guilt of the accused is complete in all aspects. In the present case, we affirm that the prosecution has been able to prove the guilt of the accused appellant…. There is no doubt in the mind of the court that the prosecution has proved by leading clinching and convincing circumstantial evidence that the accused had committed forcible and violent sexual assault on the child victim and, thereafter, strangled and killed her. Consequently, the appeals lack merit and are hereby dismissed,” the apexcourt observed.