'Serious Crisis Will Arise For Women If Such A Man Remains Alive': UP Court Sentences Man To Death For Killing, Raping 9 Yr Old Girl

"The crime of the accused is extremely heinous in nature and is shameful for humanity, if a person with such a criminal mindset remains alive in the society, then a serious crisis will arise for women and humanity," a Court in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad district observed while sentencing a man to death for raping and killing a 9-year-old girl.

Convicting the accused under sections 363, 376 AB, 323, 302 and Section 6 of the POCSO Act, the Special POCSO Court presided over by Judge Amit Kumar Prajapati sentenced him to death after holding that the prosecution had been able to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

The case against the 25-year-old convict (Kapil) was that he abducted two girls (both related to each other) from his village on the night of 18 August 2022 in Ghaziabad Modinagar on the pretext of offering them ice cream.

While one girl (aged 6 years) was able to escape from the clutches of the convict after she was assaulted by the accused, the 9-year-old girl was raped by him in the sugarcane field, and later on, she was strangled to death.

On an overall analysis of the evidence available on record, the Court noted that the same established the fact that the oral statements of the eyewitnesses regarding the abduction of the deceased are corroborated by the electronic evidence, and CCTV footage, and their statements are consistent with each other.

The Court also found that regarding the evidence related to the offense of kidnapping, the witnesses produced by the prosecution were completely reliable witnesses. Further, the injuries on the body of the deceased were proved by the evidence of the doctor, medical report, and post-mortem report.

Along with this, the Court noted that the rape of the deceased was also confirmed and no concrete evidence had been produced by the accused that the injuries sustained by the deceased and the rape/penetrative sexual assault on the deceased were not done by him but by someone else.

The Court also stressed that since it was proved that the deceased was present with the accused just before the death, therefore, whatever crime/incident had happened against her, is proved to have been committed by the accused.

"(the accused) abducted the victim and the deceased on a bicycle, the dead body being found in the field, the post mortem report confirming the fact of rape and strangulation of the deceased, report of the Forensic Science Laboratory stating that the hair found in the fist of the deceased belong to the accused, all the facts clearly prove that the deceased and the victim were abducted by the accused Kapil and from the spot, the maternal sister of the deceased managed to escape from the grip of the accused and the accused committed a crime like rape (penetrative sexual assault) with the deceased. During this time, to suppress the sound of screaming or crying, her neck was strangulated resulting in her death," said the Court.

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