KOCHI: The Special Court considering atrocities and sexual violence against women and children on Monday awarded death penalty to Rajith of Aikaranadu, the prime accused in the murder of a four-and-a-half-year-old girl at Chottanikkara in 2013. The court also awarded double life imprisonment to the girl’s mother Rani of Thiruvaniyoor, the second accused in the case, and Basil K Babu of Thiruvaniyoor, the accomplice of the first accused.
Additional District and Sessions Judge K T Nisar Ahammed held it was a ‘rarest of rare case’ which warrants capital punishment as far as the first accused is concerned.
The Special Court considering atrocities and sexual violence against women and children, while pronouncing the quantum of punishment against the accused persons in the murder of a minor girl in Chottanikkara, observed the mother of the victim is a shame to the entire womanhood. “She is not even entitled to be called a mother,” the court observed.
It said whatever may be the motive of the accused, she should have entrusted the child with her parents if the child was a hindrance to her relationship with the other accused persons in the case. She had already abandoned the second child with her parents. Rani had conspired with the other accused to eliminate her four-and-a-half-year-old daughter. The court awarded life imprisonment and slapped a fine of `50000 on Rani for the offence under section 120 B (1) of IPC.
The court also sentenced her to rigorous imprisonment for seven years and imposed a fine of `25 000 for the offence under section 201 read with 120 B of IPC. It also awarded life imprisonment and fine of `50,000 for the offence under section 302 of IPC.
Further, it awarded six months rigorous imprisonment under section 23 of the Juvenile Justice (care and protection of children) Act. Rani being the biological mother was bound to give protection to the child, but she had failed to do so, the order stated.
First capital punishment
This is the first capital punishment awarded after the POCSO court started functioning in the state. The court has been functioning in Ernakulam since 2013. The two other courts had started functioning in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode last year.