A Jharkhand court has sentenced three persons to death for the gangrape and murder of a six-year-old girl, in a judgement that came in less than a month after the crime was committed.
Special Judge Taufiqul Hasan passed the sentence on March 3, after conducting the trial in four working days.
“Our society has also a reasonable and bonafide expectation from the courts of law and the exception is that such an exemplary and deterrent punishment commensurate with the gravity and nature of the offence be awarded to the convicts that the likes of them may take a lesson in the days to come, and may ponder what happened with the likes of them in the past and what the courts of law and prosecuting agency did with them in the past and this is why the court must respond to the cry of society,” the order said.
The three – Mithu Rai, an uncle of the victim, Pankaj Mohali and Ashok Rai – were convicted of the crime under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and various sections of the Indian Penal Code. The judge awarded capital punishment to the three and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on each of them.
According toThe Indian Express, the victim’s uncle and two others had taken the girl away on the pretext of treating her with ‘golgappas’ on February 5. However, the girl did not return home till late night and the uncle lied to her parents, saying that they had left the girl on the doorstep.
Two days later, villagers found the child’s body buried in Mahubana under Ramgarh police station of Dumka. All three men, who had fled the village, were arrested on February 12.
According to the court records, the three had taken the girl to a lonely place, “gagged her mouth”, “smothered her face”, and “committed gang sexual penetrative assault.”