Two men get death for Mandsaur child’s rape

BHOPAL: Barely two months after an eight-year-old girl was gangraped in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur, two men were sentenced to death after they were found guilty by a special court. The Class 2 student was lured away by the two men when she was standing outside her school on June 26, waiting for her parents to pick her up. The men raped, tortured and then slit her throat before walking away.

The men - Irfan and Asif - were caught within 24 hours of the rape after police examined the photographs and CCTV footage from the neighbourhood. Police zoomed in on the clip in which the child was seen walking with a man and noticed the brand of his new shoes.

The Mandsaur rape had triggered a massive outcry in Madhya Pradesh seeking the death penalty for the accused. The opposition Congress had attacked the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government for doing “absolutely nothing” for the safety of women and demanded the probe be handed over to the CBI.

Last month, the Special Investigation Team probing the gangrape filed a 500-page charge-sheet against the two men, who are in their twenties. In addition to the physical evi- dence, investigators had included their hair samples, CCTV footage and videos.

The girl had suffered severe injuries to her neck, face, head and private parts.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had demanded death penalty for the two accused. He had also said that the case would be heard in a fast track court. He also wrote a letter to Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra seeking his intervention for the timely disposal of such cases in High Courts and the Supreme Court.

Shivraj Singh Chouhan had demanded death penalty for the two accused Accused men lured the girl away from school premises, then raped her The girl had suffered severe injuries to her neck, head and private parts