New Delhi:
Days after a Haryana youth was given the death sentence for raping and killing an eight-year-old girl in Rewari, a special court in Bhopal on Monday awarded the same to a man for raping and killing his six-year-old daughter in 2017. The 42-year-old accused suspected that his wife of having an extramarital affair and believed the victim was not his biological child, the prosecution said. He engaged in unnatural sex with the girl and also raped her, the official added. He later hanged her with the help of a stole on the night of March 15, 2017, the official said.
Terming the incident rarest of the rare, special judge for the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) Kumudini Patel awarded death sentence to the accused. Post-mortem report confirmed rape, unnatural sex and strangulation. The victim’s DNA report matched with the accused following which he was arrested, the official said.
Read More | Haryana teen gets death penalty for raping, killing eight-year-old in Rohtak
The prosecution proved the case on the basis of scientific evidence following which the court awarded capital punishment to him under section 302 of the IPC and life imprisonment under section 376, Director General, prosecution, Rajendra Kumar, said. “Though main witnesses turned hostile, scientific evidence of post-mortem and DNA had helped us in proving our case,” he said. With this, the total number of death sentences awarded so far in such matters (where victims were minors) has risen to 21 this year, Kumar added.
In the Haryana case, as well additional sessions judge Naresh Kumar of a Rewari court termed the act a rarest of the rare and a lesser punishment than the death penalty cannot be given for the same. The judge likened the incident to the infamous Nirbhaya case of 2012 and said that it deserved a similar punishment. On June 9, the victim was alone in her house, when the convict, known to the family, entered the house and lured the girl into his room and committed the crime. The court found during the trial that the convict first showed porn to the eight-year-old girl and then forced himself on her.
While announcing the quantum of punishment, the judge said, “The court has to consider it as one of the rarest of rare case and lesser punishment than the death penalty cannot be given. Further, the pain and suffering of that particular innocent child are very material. The court cannot ignore it. This case cannot be considered as lesser to Nirbhaya because the victim who was innocent, having a bright future, was murdered for the purpose of the sexual act and in the daylight within the vicinity of the village.”
