Kerala Court Awards Death Penalty To Convict For Rape-Murder Of 5-Year-Old Within 109 Days Of Offence

A Kerala Court on Tuesday sentenced to death a 28 year old man for the brutal rape and murder of a 5 year old girl at Aluva in July this year.

The convict is Asafaq Alam, a native of Bihar. The victim also belonged to a migrant labourer family hailing from Bihar.

Ernakulam POCSO Court Judge K. Soman passed the sentence within 109 days of the occurrence of the tragic incident. 

The child had gone missing on July 28, 2023. She was strangulated and dumped into a waste yard in Aluva market. The police arrested accused Asafaq Alam, also a migrant labourer, in a highly inebriated condition on the same day. 

Terming the case as 'rarest of the rare', the POCSO Court added that the convict does not deserve any sympathy. Apart from the circumstantial evidence, the Court also took into account the DNA evidence and the seriousness of the nature of offence. 

On November 4, the Court had convicted Alam for all 16 offences alleged against him, including that of murder, rape and destruction of evidence.  The trial in the case was completed within a record span of 26 days of filing the chargesheet. Special Public Prosecutor G Mohanraj appeared for the prosecution.

The charges against Alam include Sections 302 (punishment for murder), 376 (2)(j) (rape on woman incapable of giving consent), 377 (unnatural offences), 328 (hurt by means of poison), 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder), 366A (procuration of minor girl), 367 (kidnapping or abduction to subject person to grievous hurt, slavery, etc), 297 (indignity to human corpus), and 201 (disappearance of evidence) of IPC, and Section 5 of the POCSO Act. 

The POCSO Court has pronounced the sentence today, on the occasion of Children's Day. 

Click Here To Read/Download The Judgment

Also Read: https://www.livelaw.in/news-updates/kerala-aluve-rape-murder-migrant-child-5-year-old-asfaq-alam-threat-girl-children-242262