A POCSO court in Gujarat’s Surat on Tuesday sentenced a 35-year-old migrant laborer to death for raping and killing a two-and-a-half-year-old girl, terming the case as the “rarest of the rarest”. This incident happened last month. To ensure fastrack hearing, Pandesara police had filed the charge sheet within seven days after arresting the laborer on November 8. The court recorded the statements of 43 witnesses in the case and delivered the verdict within a month.
The court had on Monday convicted accused Guddu Yadav on various charges of kidnapping, rape and murder under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act.
Instructions to give compensation of 20 lakh rupees
POCSO court judge PS Kala on Tuesday found ‘rarest of rare’ and sentenced Guddu to death under sections 376-AB and 302 of the Indian Penal Code. The court also directed the state government to pay Rs 20 lakh as compensation to the family of the girl child.
On the last day of the hearing, Public Prosecutor Nayan Sukhadwala had sought capital punishment for the convict, who hails from Bihar and was presently residing in Pandesara area of Surat city with his wife and two children. He worked in a factory.
31 orders cited
Sukhadwala urged the court to treat it as a “rarest of rare” case while insisting on the death penalty to the convict and cited 31 orders passed in the past in similar cases in the country.
The accused crossed the limit of vandalism
The prosecution had told the court that Guddu had shown such brutality that even the internal organs of the girl had come out of the body. After committing the crime, he threw the girl’s body in the bushes.
At the same time, the counsel for the accused had sought leniency and said that the future of his client’s children may be uncertain with the death penalty.
was strangled to death after rape
According to the prosecution, Guddu kidnapped and sexually assaulted a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter of a migrant labor couple from Bihar on the night of November 4 and then strangled her to death. The girl’s body was found on November 7 near a factory, about a kilometer away from her house.
The police had arrested Guddu on November 8 after going through the CCTV footage and gathering information from local sources and people.
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