BHOPAL: In a significant development, a man who was accused of raping a nine-year-old girl in Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh, was convicted for the heinous crime and awarded capital punishment by a local court on Saturday.
Importantly, the trial in the case was completed within 46 days in a local court in Rehli block and the accused convicted for the crime. The police investigation into the case too was completed in just 72 hours.
The shocking incident happened in Khamaria village of Rehli block of Sagar district on May 21. The accused was arrested and booked under Sections 376-A, 376-B of IPC and provisions of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012, said SP of Sagar district Satyendra Kumar Shukla. The court of additional district and sessions judge in Rehli block Sudhanshu Saxena held the accused Narayan Patel guilty of the crime and awarded him death penalty.
This is perhaps the first case in Madhya Pradesh, where capital punishment has been pronounced to a man convicted of raping a minor, after the amendments were made to the criminal law by the Narendra Modi governent to provide death penalty as the maximum punishment for those convicted for raping minors aged up to 12 years.
Meanwhile, a five year old girl was allegedly assaulted sexually by the driver of the auto-rickshaw by which she daily went to school in Katni town of MP.The matter which was reported by the girl's kin to Katni police on Saturday happened three days back.
According to a officer of Katni police, the 37-year-old auto-rickshaw driver Rajkumar Kol daily dropped school students from home to school in his auto-rickshaw.On July 4, the auto-rickshaw driver dropped all children at school, excepting the five year old girl. He drove the minor from school to a desolate spot and assaulted her sexually. The girl reported the matter to her parents on Friday night and family reported it to police on Saturday morning, after which the accused was arrested.
In a related development, the Congress workers staged a demonstration on Saturday outside Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's residence in Bhopal over rising incidents of crime against women and children in the state. The police later arrested 31 Congress workers, including 19 women activists and sent them to jail from where they were released on bail.