The Delhi High Court has upheld the conviction and life sentence awarded to a man for raping an eight-year-old girl and later bludgeoning her to death with such force that her skull shattered.
A Bench of Justice C. Hari Shankar and Justice S.P. Garg said, “There are no frills in this story. It is an account of human depravity carried to such an unmentionable extreme, that there remains no room for embellishment or embroidery.”
Tragic incident
“It has to be told, and told with brutal directness,” the Bench went on to narrate the tragic incident.
On July 11, 2011, the victim’s mother who worked as a domestic help in Pitampura, went to work at 3 p.m. leaving her daughter playing with her siblings in a park.
After a while, the girl went to drink water from the water cooler in the nearby office building of the North Delhi Power Limited (NDPL). She was never seen, alive, thereafter, the Bench remarked.
Complaint registered
Her mother returned at 4 p.m. but found her daughter missing from the park. When both the parents’ search turned futile, they registered a complaint at the Maurya Enclave Police Station.
On July 13, 2011, NDPL staff noticed a foul smell pervading the premises.
This lead to the discovery of the decomposed corpse of the girl.
“A glance at the body revealed that she had first been brutally raped and, thereafter, clobbered on the head with a solid metal instrument, resulting in her skull being shattered...,” the court said.
Police investigation found that the girl was last seen with one Sanjay Kumar Valmiki, who worked as sweeper in the office. Later Valmiki was apprehended by the police.
It, however, set aside the trial court order for a mandatory minimum period of incarceration of 25 years without remission to the convict saying such power are available only with the High Court or with the Supreme Court.
The Bench, however, decided to award the same punishment to the convict.