A court in Balod district of Chhattisgarh has sentenced a 50-year-old man to death for raping and murdering a 12-year-old girl in 2017.

Balod District and Session Judge Rajendra Pradhan gave Jhaggar Yadav the death penalty after finding him guilty under relevant sections of the IPC and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, District Prosecution Officer (DPO) M R Qureshi told PTI on Tuesday.

Yadav, a resident of Dallirajhra, had kidnapped the girl on June 5, 2017, raped her at a nearby mine, bludgeoned her to death and dumped her body in the bushes, Qureshi said.

He was arrested on June 7 and charged under Sections 302 (murder), 376 (rape), 363 (kidnapping) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of the IPC and provisions of the POCSO Act, the officer said.

On Monday, Judge Pradhan observed that the case fell in the "rarest of rare" category and handed down the capital punishment to Yadav, the DPO said.

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