The Supreme Court has stayed the death sentence awarded to a person convicted of sexually assaulting and murdering a five-year-old girl in Madhya Pradesh in 2024. The bench of Justice Vikram Nath, Justice Sandeep Mehta and Justice NV Anjaria passed this order while hearing the appeal filed by Atul Nihale. Atul Nihale has challenged the January decision of Madhya Pradesh High Court.
His conviction and sentence were upheld in the decision of the Madhya Pradesh High Court. In its order passed on Tuesday (March 10, 2026), the bench said, ‘The execution of the death penalty will be stayed till the hearing and final disposal of the present appeals.’
The Supreme Court said that the records of the original case should be called from the High Court and the concerned lower court. The bench directed the state to submit the reports of all the probation officers related to the appellant before it within 12 weeks.
The court said, ‘The Superintendent of the Central Jail, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, will submit a report within a period of 12 weeks regarding the nature of the work done by the appellant while in jail and his conduct and behaviour.’ The bench directed the head of Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Center to constitute an appropriate team for the purpose of psychological evaluation of the appellant. The court said that the evaluation report should be presented to the court within 12 weeks.
The bench said that the Jail Superintendent shall ensure that in the interest of confidentiality, the interviews are conducted in a separate chamber where no jail officer or policeman is around and that the use of audio recorders be allowed to record the interviews. The court adjourned the hearing of this case after 16 weeks.
The lower court had convicted the appellant in this case and sentenced him to death. The victim’s mother had lodged a complaint with the police in Bhopal in September 2024 that her daughter was missing. According to the police, during the search operation the policemen smelled a foul smell and reached a flat in Idgah Hills where they found the victim’s body in a plastic tank in the bathroom.
The lower court, in its judgment given in March last year, had convicted the appellant and sentenced him. Later the case went to the High Court which rejected the appeal of the appellant against the decision of the lower court.
