A court in Baruipur near Kolkata on Friday awarded the death penalty to Mostakin Sardar for the rape and murder of a Class IV student on October 5 this year.
The child's body had been discovered at a short distance from a police outpost in Jaynagar’s Kultali. She had gone missing while returning from her tuition.
Sardar was the lone person arrested.
The rape and murder of the child, which had come less than two months after the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, had sparked angry protests by local residents.
Frustrated with what they called the initial reluctance of police to register a complaint, the girl's parents had petitioned Calcutta High Court for a magisterial autopsy, which was carried out at Kalyani JNM Hospital by doctors of AIIMS, Kalyani.
The Bengal government had formed a seven-member Special Investigation Team to investigate the Jaynagar case five days after the nine-year-old schoolgirl was raped and killed in the block in South 24-Parganas district.
