A fast track special court here has awarded death penalty to a man for raping and killing a three-and-half-year-old girl in Chhattisgarh’s Rajnandgaon district last year, terming it as a “heinous” crime and observing that the accused brought shame to humanity. Additional Sessions Judge (POCSO court) Shailesh Sharma issued the order on Monday and its details were made available on Tuesday. The judge convicted Shekhar Korram (28) under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, special public prosecutor Parvez Akhtar said.
The court also awarded him seven-year rigorous imprisonment each under IPC sections 363 (kidnapping) and 201 (causing disappearance of the offence), and ten-year RI after pronouncing him guilty under IPC section 366 (kidnapping or abducting a woman to compel her for marriage or to cause her defilement), the prosecutor said. The court also imposed a collective fine of Rs 15,000 on the convict, he said.
The judge in his order said, “The offence is of a heinous nature and the accused deserves no leniency. The accused has committed a crime which brings shame to humanity. There is no possibility of any reformation and rehabilitation of the accused in the society.” The incident of rape not only ruins the life of the victim, but also kills their soul…(if the victim was alive) she had to bear that pain throughout her life,” the court said. Such incidents disturb common citizens and increase their concern towards the safety of their children, be it a son or a daughter, and they remain apprehensive about it, the court noted.
As long as those who commit such crimes in the society are not awarded the harsh punishment of death, this apprehension cannot be wiped out from the minds of the people, Parvez said, quoting the order. Punishing the accused with such harsh punishment will strengthen the faith of society and the relatives of the deceased on the court, and in future, those who commit such heinous crimes will not be spared under any circumstances,” the court said. On August 22, 2020, the accused abducted the girl, a resident of his native village in Rajnandgaon district, while she was playing near her house.
The man took the girl to his house, where he raped her and later smothered her to death with a pillow cover, the prosecutor said. After hiding the body under a cot in his house, the accused joined the parents and other villagers in their search for the missing girl along with police. Later, the body was recovered from the man’s house and he was arrested, the prosecution said.
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Source: News18