Man who raped, killed baby gets death in 23 days

: A court in Indore sentenced a man to death for the rape and murder of an eightmonth old baby last month, delivering a rare speedy ruling within 23 days of the crime.

The man, identified as Navin Gadke, knew the family and had been identified immediately after the crime on April 19. Police said the motive was revenge after he had an altercation with the victim’s family.

“This accused is a ‘gangrene’ in the body of the society and to save society such parts should be cut. If such people are given life sentences, there is a possibility that they might come out and commit the same crime once again. This is the rarest of rare case and the accused should receive the maximum sentence,” said additional sessions judge Varsha Sharma in her ruling.

The incident took place a day before the Union cabinet amended the Pocso act to give courts an option to hand out capital punishment to men convicted of raping children below the age of 12. The change was in response to growing anger across the country over sexual assault of children, triggered largely by a case in Jammu’s Kathua.

The conviction in this case, in which the victim died, qualified for the ‘rarest of rare’ test that judges use to determine whether a crime was grave enough to warrant capital punishment.

The trial was effectively wrapped up in three days — it began with recording of statements on May 8 and final arguments were presented on May 10 — after the prosecution filed the formal indictments within a week.

“We went through the footage of all the close circuit television cameras in the area and saw the accused taking the child in his cycle and entering a building at 4.45 am and then coming back alone at around 5 am. We picked him up for questioning and he confessed to his crime,” said the head of a special team of police, inspector Shivpal Singh Kushwaha.

The clinching evidence was based on DNA samples that were found on the convict’s shirt, cycle and parts of his body. “His DNA was found in the minor’s body,” the officer said.

In her judgment judge Sharma called the incident a crime “against the entire society”.

INDORE