Rajasthan awards first death sentence under POCSO to 19-year-old who raped seven-month-old baby
A special court hearing cases of SC/ST Act and POCSO Act in Alwar sentenced to death Pintu, who was found guilty of raping the infant in Laxmangarh area in Alwar on May 9.
Published: 21st July 2018 07:21 PM | Last Updated: 21st July 2018 08:05 PM | A+A A-
In the first conviction in Rajasthan and third in the country, the death penalty has been sentenced to a 19-year-old youth convicted for raping a seven-months-old infant under the provision of Criminal Law (Amendment ) Ordinance 2018.
The Judgment has come within 70 days of the incident. Special judge Jagendra Kumar Agarwal of the SC/ ST court took 12 hearings over 22 days and the youth was convicted on Wednesday.
On 9 May 2018, the father of the infant filed a complained to the police that the accused, Pintu, had raped his daughter while she was left in the care of his relative.
The father was informed by the relative that Pintu had taken the baby and while searching for the baby, he came across her in a football field which was about a kilometre away from their home.
The father said that he found the infant bleeding profusely as she was raped by Pintu.
Based on the father's complaint, police arrested Pintu under sections 363,366 A, 376 AB, 376(2), as well under the sections of POCSO Act. Section 376 AB was introduced in the Ordinance and deals with
punishment for rape of a child under 12 years.
A substantial rise is seen in the numbers of rapes against minors in Rajasthan in recent time. As per state police records, On 21 April 2018, Rajasthan passed the act of death penalty to those found guilty of raping a minor below 12 years. Till 30th June 2018, during this period of 71 days, 37 minors between 3 to 12 years of age were raped.
Although chargesheets of 22 cases have been submitted in the court, the police investigation has not been completed in 15 cases.
In Rajasthan alone, 5429 POCSO cases were pending till April 2018. While the number of such cases is rapidly rising, the legal process for the victims is extremely slow.
Given the paucity of POCSO courts and the laxity of investigations, barely 15 per cent of the accused are actually punished.
This is the first case where the conviction was completed in record time and guilty is awarded the death penalty.
Nisha Sidhhu, a leading woman activist calls it a historic decision. "This heinous act becomes the category of rarest to rare. We can hope that it will give a strong message to the criminals of filthy mind and will put a check on the increasing trend of rapes against minors," she said.
