A special court in Kerala’s Ernakulam on Tuesday sentenced a 28-year-old man to death for raping and murdering a five-year-old girl, reported Live Law.
The child had gone missing on July 28. Her body was found in a sack dumped into a waste yard in the Aluva market the next morning. Later in the day, the police arrested Asafak Alam, a migrant worker from Bihar, in a highly-intoxicated condition.
The police said that Alam abducted, raped and killed the five-year-old, who was the child of another migrant worker. Both of them lived in the same building.
Alam was found guilty by K Soman, the Ernakulam Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act judge, on November 4 on 16 charges, including aggravated penetrative sexual assault, rape and murder, reported Bar and Bench.
At Tuesday’s hearing, the court pronounced a sentence on 13 charges.
These include Indian Penal Code Sections 302 (murder), 376 (rape), 377 (unnatural sex), 328 (hurt by use of poison), 364 (kidnapping for murder), 366(a) (procuration of minor girl), 367 (kidnapping for causing grievous hurt), 297 (indignity to human corpus) and 201 (disappearance of evidence).
Alam was also punished under three sub-sections of Section 5 (penetrative sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and Section 77 (giving intoxicating liquor) of the Juvenile Justice Act.
The court termed the case “rarest of rare” and said the convict did not deserve sympathy.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the verdict, which came on the occasion of Children’s day, should be seen as a strong warning, reported The Indian Express.
“That child was subjected to extremely heinous cruelty,” said Vijayan. “Immediately after they got a complaint, police had acted promptly leading to the arrest of the accused. The government has ensured all protection and aid for the family of the girl. Atrocities of this nature cannot be tolerated by civilised society. Society should be ready to isolate those who commit crimes of this nature.”
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