R'sthan POCSO court awards death to two for raping and killing minor

Jaipur, April 29 (IANS) A POCSO court on Friday awarded the death sentence to two persons who gang-raped, murdered and then again raped a minor's body in Bundi district on December 23, 2021. It termed the case as the rarest of rare.

The accused were identified as Sultan and Chhotulal.

Bundi Superintendent of Police Jai Yadav said that the police started a manhunt after the body of the 15-year-old girl was found in the dense jungles falling under Basoli police station area.

The Superintendent of Police reached the spot and called a forensic team and dog squad to collect scientific evidence of the incident.

The police conducted an intensive search in the nearby dense forests. The entire area was sealed off and an in depth search operation was carried out in the entire forest with 10 police officers, 200 police personnel and the dog squad following which the criminals were arrested in just 12 hours. They confessed to their crime during interrogation.

The police collected evidence and presented the challan in the POCSO court in Bundi in 3 working days. The state government completed the formalities in just 24 hours and Mahavir Singh Kishnawat, Advocate in the Rajasthan High Court, was appointed as special public prosecutor.

The Special PP said in his arguments that when the minor victim escaped from accused Sultan and ran for help towards her maternal grandfather, Chhotulal 62 (accused), he also raped the victim. The marks on her body told the story of how the demons must have wrought their cruelty, he said, adding that the accused also raped the body of the deceased after the murder, which comes in the category of rarest of rare.

The court sentenced both the accused to death in just 11 working days.

Director General of Police ML Lather said that precise systematic research by the police was done with the use of scientific and technical tools.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said "This is the first case under the POCSO Act in the state in which two convicts have been sentenced to death simultaneously."

Since the formation of our government, "8 convicts have been given death sentence, more than 137 have been given life and more than 620 convicts have been sentenced," he added.