The Supreme Court on Thursday commuted the death sentence of a man convicted of the rape and murder of a Kochi resident to seven years imprisonment, CNN News18 reported on Thursday. The court dropped the murder charges against Govindachamy but held him guilty of the rape of the 24-year-old woman in February 2011. The death sentence awarded to the convict by a fast-track court in Thrissur was upheld by the Kerala High Court in January 2014.

Govindachamy had assaulted the woman, a shopping mall employee, on board a passenger train on February 1. He threw her off the running train after she resisted him. He then jumped off the train himself and raped her as she lay injured near the tracks. Found lying unconscious, she succumbed to her injuries on February 6. Govindachamy has been described as a “habitual offender” and was convicted in eight cases in Tamil Nadu between 2004 and 2008, according to Firstpost.