By Express News Service
LUCKNOW: A special POCSO court in Jaunpur awarded death sentence to an accused who had raped and brutally murdered an 11-year-old minor girl in August 2020.
Judge Ravi Yadav also slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on him. The order has been delivered within seven months after day-to-day hearings in the case.
On August 6, 2020, Balmukund alias Govinda, who hailed from Chanduali district, took the victim and her sister out for buying them biscuits and toffees. He took the girl to a cornfield and raped her after sending her sister home. Fearing that the girl would divulge his truth to her parents, the accused strangled the victim to death by pouring acid on her face and body to destroy her identity.
When the girl did not return home, her parents launched a search but in vain. Then the family lodged a missing complaint at the local police station. Two days later, the villagers found the victim’s acid-burnt body. The victim’s post mortem report confirmed rape and death due to asphyxia.
On the statement of the victim’s younger sister, the police arrested Govinda from his hometown Chandauli. The shopkeeper and victim’s younger sister appeared as witnesses during the trial. They named the accused claiming that he took the victim with him. The prosecution produced as many as 11 other witnesses during the trial substantiating the rape and murder charges on the accused mentioned in the charge sheet.
After hearing the arguments from both sides, the POCSO court observed that the crime committed by the accused comes under the category of the rarest of rare and the perpetrator should be awarded no less than a death sentence.
Family members of the victim said that justice was done to their daughter by the court. The defence counsel said that they would approach a higher court to appeal against the verdict.