In a ruling issued on Monday, a Nagpur court has condemned a man to capital punishment for the heinous crimes of raping and murdering a 5-year-old girl in 2019.
Sanjay Puri, aged 32, received the death sentence from District Judge and Additional Sessions Judge S R Padwal. The charges against him include violations under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, as well as Section 376(A)(B) and Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, as stated by Special Public Prosecutor Prashant Kumar Sathianathan.
The tragic discovery of the girl’s body, bearing severe head injuries, was made on December 6, 2019, in a farm plot in Linga village, Kalmeshwar tehsil, where she lived with her laborer parents. The scene was marked by a horrifying tableau: a cloth and rod had been forcefully inserted into her mouth, while a blood-stained boulder lay nearby.
Subsequent police investigations unveiled the gruesome truth: the girl had been raped and brutally beaten to death. Sanjay Puri, employed as a watchman on the farm, was promptly apprehended, according to the Special Public Prosecutor.
Throughout the legal proceedings, a total of 26 witnesses were called upon to testify, providing crucial evidence in the case, Sathianathan confirmed.
In addition to the death sentence, the court also imposed life imprisonment on Puri under section 376(2) of the IPC and section 4 of the POCSO Act. He was further sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment under section 10 of the POCSO Act. Notably, all sentences are to be served concurrently, as clarified by the Special Public Prosecutor.
