BHOPAL: A 26-year-old man who kidnapped, raped and murdered his nephew’s three months and four days old daughter on April 20 early morning was awarded double death penalty by a special court in Indore on Saturday.
The man identified as Naveen was pronounced guilty for the rape and murder of the baby girl under Sections 376A and 302 of IPC by Special Judge (POCSO Cases) Varsha Sharma and awarded death penalty by the judge under both the IPC sections.
While delivering the verdict, the special court judge observed that savage acts like these shake the entire society. It’s a crime against humanity and comes under the category of rarest of rare crime, owing to which the prosecution counsel prayer for awarding capital punishment to the convict is being accepted, special prosecutor Mohd Akram Sheikh told The New Indian Express.
The defence counsel Sachin Verma, however, requested the court to show leniency as it was the first crime by the convict. The defence counsel also submitted that the CCTV footage which served as crucial evidence in the case, dated back to 2009 and not April 2018, but the prosecution counsel Mohd Akram Sheikh argued that the 2009 date in the footage was the date of the CCTV’s make and not that of the footage.
The special court also awarded life imprisonment to Naveen after being found guilty under the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012, besides sentencing him to five years and seven years in prison on being convicted for kidnapping under Sections 363 and 366(a) of IPC respectively. He was also sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment after being convicted under Section 201 of IPC.
The accused was pronounced guilty by the court 22 days from the ghastly incident. Thirteen days of daily hearings took place in the case, since the charge-sheet was filed by the prosecution on April 27. A total of 29 accused recorded their statements before the court.
The angry group of people thrashed the convict in the court premises, while he was being taken in police custody back to jail after the pronouncement of the court’s verdict.
Importantly, the little girl who was aged just three months and four days was sleeping with her balloon seller parents on roadside near the Rajwada Palace in the heart of Indore on April 19 night. When the baby girl’s mother woke up at 5 am on April 20, she was shocked to find her infant daughter missing. The matter was reported at Saraffa police station. A few hours later, the MG Road police found the little girl dead in the basement of a nearby building.
Subsequent investigations based on the scanning of the CCTV footage retrieved from the spot from where the infant girl was kidnapped revealed that the 26-year-old Indore resident Naveen walking with the little girl on his shoulder between 4.30 am and 5 am on April 20.
The police arrested the accused on April 20 evening. The arrested man was the uncle of the little girl’s father, who had asked the infant girl’s mother to mend his strained relations with his wife. But the little girl’s mother refused to help his cause, to avenge which the accused committed the horrific crime.
Importantly, the accused man’s wife was also sleeping with the little girl and her parents on the roadside, when the crime was committed by her husband.
Only a day after the ghastly episode happened in Indore, the Narendra Modi government had cleared the ordinance to amend POCSO Act which paved the passage for death penalty as maximum punishment to those convicted of raping girls aged up to 12 years.
Four states, starting with Madhya Pradesh and also including Rajasthan, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh have passed resolutions for a law which puts in place death penalty as maximum punishment to those convicted for raping minors aged up to 12 years.