AURANGABAD: The Bhokar sessions court of Nanded district on Tuesday convicted a 35-year-old man for the rape and brutal murder of a five-year-old girl in January this year and gave him a death sentence.
The case was decided on the 60th day from the date of registration of the offence, making it one of the fastest cases decided in the country. The incident took place on January 20, while the offence was registered in the early hours of January 21.
Public prosecutor Ramesh Rajurkar said: “The convict has been punished to hang till death. The punishment was pronounced by additional sessions judge-I M S Shaikh in the open court by terming it “rarest of rare case.”
He said the trial in the case commenced on March 1 and was completed on Tuesday. During these 23 days, 15 prosecution witnesses deposed before the court.
On the afternoon of January 20, the girl had gone missing from her family’s farm under the limits of Bhokar police station. Her family and other villagers were looking for her, when they found out that the worker employed in their farm was also missing.
Deputy inspector general of police (Nanded range ) Nisar Tamboli said the girl’s body, with serious injuries to her private parts and strangulation marks, was found near a river bank. The police deployed a sniffer dog squad and found the convict hiding near the crime scene.
Nanded additional superintendent of police Vijay Kabade told TOI, “The investigation in the case was completed in a span of 19 days and the chargesheet was filed on February10.”
The officer said the accused was charged under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for kidnapping, murder, rape, committing sexual act causing serious bodily harm and unnatural act.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)