"It is the safety of a girl child which is of paramount importance to a society," HC observed. (FIle) The Bombay High Court on Thursday upheld the death sentence of Ramkirat Munilal Goud, a 30-year-old from Kasarvadavli, Thane, convicted for raping and killing a three-year-old girl in September 2013, who was out to play with her pet dog. The sessions court had awarded death penalty to Goud on March 8, 2019, which the convict challenged in the high court. The state government had filed a plea in HC to confirm the death sentence.
“She was noticed by a knave man who was driven by a desire of lust upon the sight of a little happy harmless child playing in her own world,” a division bench of Justices Sadhana S Jadhav and Prithviraj K Chavan observed. The minor was killed and her body was found after a few days in a muddy pond.
“It is such an incident that parents of every small girl child would feel a chill down the spine before sending their undefended, innocent, minor girl child to see the rainbow as they would be scared as to whether she would fall prey to any monster like the present one. It is the safety of a girl child which is of paramount importance to a society,” HC observed.
Man acquitted in gangrape-murder case
The court, in another case, set aside the death penalty and acquitted Rahimuddin Mohfuz Shaikh, one of the two convicts in the gangrape of two women and murder of one of them in Belapur in May 2012.
The high court in October 2019 had set aside the death sentence of the other accused, accepting his plea that he was a minor when he committed the crime. The victims, who worked as ragpickers, were promised a catering job by the two accused in 2012. The two women were eventually taken to an isolated spot in CBD Belapur in Navi Mumbai and made to consume liquor by the accused. After that they were raped and also assaulted with sharp weapons, including a hacksaw blade and a knife. While both the women were left to die, one of them managed to escape.
“The order of conviction and death sentence awarded to accused Shaikh by sessions court order of May 11, 2017 is quashed and set aside by extending him a benefit of doubt,” the HC held .
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