Gzb court awards death to man for rape and murder of two-year-old

GHAZIABAD: A Ghaziabad fasttrack court on Wednesday awarded death to a 30-year-old man for raping and murdering the two-and-half-year-old daughter of his colleague, on the night on October 19, 2020.

The court had fast-tracked the case and held the man guilty on January 18, after a trial that had lasted 29 days. While pronouncing the quantum of punishment on Wednesday, Mahendra Srivastava, special judge (Pocso Act), termed the case “rarest of rare” and went on to award the maximum punishment to the convict.

According to the prosecution, the crime took place on the night of October 19, 2020, when the convict , who is a colleague of the girl’s father, went to their house and took away the child from her mother on pretext of taking her to a nearby shop.

When he did not return till late night, the family went in search of him and also approached the police. The mutilated body of the girl was found the next afternoon, near a drain in an industrial area. The man was nabbed thereafter.

The police filed the charge sheet in the case on December 16, 2020, and charges were framed on December 24, 2020.

The prosecution said the autopsy report confirmed that child had suffered eight external injuries, including a broken hyoid bone pointing to death due to asphyxia from strangling.

The court also relied upon the “last seen” theory besides the forensic test reports, which confirmed that the DNA of the man was found on body of the girl.

Apart from the death penalty, the man was also awarded life imprisonment for murder and seven years’ imprisonment for destruction of evidence.

“The man brutally raped the minor girl and murdered her, before hiding her body near a drain at the scene of crime. The prosecution produced 10 witnesses while no one, including the family of the convict, turned up in his defence. We produced witnesses, including the girl’s mother who confirmed that the man took away her daughter,” said Utkarsh Vats, special public prosecutor (Pocso).

The girl’s father and the man were friends for about 10-12 years and they worked at the same factory. At times, the man would stay with the family and the girl used to call him “Chacha (uncle)”, the police said.