PATNA: A lower court in Bihar's Gopalganj district on Saturday sentenced to death a man for abducting, raping and then killing a minor girl over a year ago. The convict, Ajit Kumar, had abducted the minor girl from her house in Pipra village on March 9, 2017 night and taken her to Vadodara in Gujarat, the court heard.
The girl's burnt body was found at Makarpura near Vadodara on April 19, 2017, according to court documents. Additional District and Sessions Judge (I) Bharat Tiwary held Ajit Kumar, a resident of Karnpura village under Gopalganj's Manjha police station, guilty of the crime and sentenced him to death.
"The convict was found guilty under IPC Sections 302 (murder), 365 (abduction), and 376 (rape) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. He had committed the crime along with two other accused, who are still absconding," said special public prosecutor Daroga Singh. The minor girl was abducted from her house when she was sleeping in a room along with two of her younger sisters. In Vadodara, she was kept in a rented house by Ajit Kumar, his brother Vishal Kumar and another man from Pipra village, according to the FIR.
On April 20, 2017, when police informed her father about the finding of the body near Vadodara, he went there and identified it as that of his missing daughter. "She was raped by the three men for days and then burnt to death after being doused with kerosene. It was adjudged one of the rarest crimes," said the public prosecutor, expressing satisfaction that the court verdict in the case came just nine months after trial started.
Defence lawyer Prabhunath Singh said the judgment was riddled with inconsistencies and that the convict would soon appeal against the death sentence in Patna High Court. "Justice has been done to us, but not fully," said the minor girl's father, Amir Hamza. "Full justice will come when the two other accused are arrested and sentenced to death," he added.