A local POSCO court in Surat, Gujarat on Tuesday sentenced a 35-year-old migrant worker to death for the rape and murder of a two and half-year-old girl in November this year.
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The court held that the case was “rarest of rare” and sentenced the accused after finding him guilty of the heinous crime of first raping and subsequently murdering the toddler.
The court wrapped trial in two weeks after the police submitted chargesheet in a week following arrest of the accused Guddu Yadav, a migrant labourer from Bihar working in a textile factory in Surat. The victim was the daughter of fellow migrant workers and her body was recovered from bushes.
During the fast track trial proceedings, the court had recorded statements of 43 witnesses.
On Tuesday, special POCSO court judge P.S. Kala observed that the case was the “rarest of rare”, and awarded capital punishment to the accused under IPC Sections 376-AB (rape on a woman under 12 years of age) and 302 (murder).
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The court also asked the State government to pay ₹20 lakh as compensation to the victim's family.
Earlier during the arguments for quantum of sentence, public prosecutor Nayan Sukhdawala urged the court to hand out death sentence to the convict without showing him leniency.