A district court in Indore sentenced a man to death on Saturday for raping and killing a four-month-old girl in April, ANI reported. The court had convicted him earlier in the day – just three weeks after the crime.
The 21-year-old was found guilty of kidnapping, rape and murder, and under sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, The Times of India reported.
On April 20, the man, said to be the infant’s uncle, had allegedly raped and killed her when she was sleeping outside the Rajwada fort with her parents, who sell balloons. The police had used CCTV camera footage to track him down. He was seen carrying her to the basement of a commercial building in the vicinity.
After the police arrested him, Indore Deputy Inspector General HC Mishra had said the accused had an argument with the child’s mother before he committed the crime.
The incident, and the sentencing within three weeks, follows protests across the country after the police chargesheet in the rape-and-murder case of an eight-year-old child in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua revealed that she had been drugged, gangraped, starved and murdered in January.
The government has drawn criticism for doing little to prevent crimes against women and children in the country. Two days after the crime in Indore, the Centre promulgated an ordinance to allow death penalty for convicts of rape of girls below 12 years of age.
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