Haryana man gets death penalty for rape-murder of minor

The special Pocso court also announced financial assistance of ₹30 lakh to the kin of the deceased by the District Legal Services Authority

A court in Kaithal of Haryana on Saturday awarded death sentence to a 22-year-old man convicted of raping and murdering a seven-and-a-half year old girl last year.

The court termed the rape and murder of a minor girl as the rarest of rare cases while awarding the death penalty. (HT Archives)

The convict, Pawan Kumar alias Moni, was a pickle vendor and belonged to the extended family of the victim.

The court termed it as the rarest of rare cases while awarding the death penalty. “A person who commits such a disgusting and heinous act has no right to live,” additional district and sessions judge Gagandeep Kaur said while handing out the sentence. “The way the culprit has brutalized the girl is intolerable.”

The special Pocso court also announced financial assistance of ₹30 lakh to the kin of the deceased by the District Legal Services Authority.

“Taking into consideration the brutality of attack, the barbaric manner in which the deceased child was raped, murdered and burnt, the mental agony undergone by the parents, the court finds that except death sentence no other sentence will be adequate,” the judge said.

The court awarded capital punishment on the charges of section 6 of the Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences Act (Pocso) and section 302 of the Indian Penal code (IPC), seven years imprisonment on section 365, 10 years punishment on section 366 and seven years imprisonment on section 201, deputy district attorney Jai Bhagwan Goyal said. The court also imposed a fine of ₹13,000.

The case was reported on October 8 last year and a first information report was registered under various sections of IPC and Pocso Act, Goyal said.

Kumar, a resident of a village under Kalayat police station, had kidnapped the class 2 student while she was playing in the street, police investigations revealed. By the evening, the family members of the victim started a search and then filed a police complaint.

The next morning, her burnt body was recovered from a nearby forest. With the help of the CCTV cameras, police succeeded in tracing Kumar. He was arrested by a police team led by deputy superintendent Sajjan Kumar. During interrogation, Kumar confessed that he raped the girl, strangled her and burnt her body by pouring petrol to destroy evidence. Medical evidence and a DNA match helped prove the charges against Kumar. The court recorded statements of 34 witnesses in the case.