Two men have been sentenced to death by a court in Jhargram district for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl.
The Special Court (Pocso Act), Jhargram, said the offence was “rarest of the rare warranting capital punishment for the accused.”
The decomposed body of the child that was found a few days after her disappearance was found hidden in an agricultural field and had maggots all over her, the order says.
The girl was reported missing in November 2021. Based on the complaint of her parents and statements of multiple witnesses, officers of Jhargram police district arrested Fagun Mandi, who had kidnapped the child.
Superintendent of police, Jhargram, Arijit Sinha, said Mandi confessed to his crime and named his partner in crime, Rabindra Routh.
Based on the purported confessions made by the two, the police recovered the decomposed body of the girl.
Later, charges of gang rape, murder, causing disappearance of evidence and aggravated penetrative sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act were added.
The court declared the two guilty on Tuesday and announced the quantum of punishment on Wednesday.
The court observed: “In view of the brutal and heinous nature of the crime, the present case belongs to the category of rarest of rare. Death sentence is the only befitting punishment for the convicts. Hence, the case falls within the category of ‘rarest of rare warranting capital punishment for the accused’.”