Sambalpur:
A fast-track court in Odisha today gave death sentence to a man for raping and murdering a three-year-old girl in the second capital punishment handed down to a rapist-killer in the country this week.
Against the backdrop of calls for speedy disposal of rape cases after the December 16 Delhi gang-rape incident, Court officials said it took less than four months for the judge to conclude the trial.
Sambalpur Additional district judge (fast track) Ashok Kumar Panda ordered that Thidu Munda of Budhiapalli village in this district be hanged to death for murdering the girl under section 302 of Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The court also awarded the convict life imprisonment under section 376(F)(2) of IPC for raping a minor girl.
Munda was convicted on January 11 in the rape and murder case and the quantum of punishment was pronounced today.
He had lured the tribal girl by offering food and raped and killed her on October 4, 2012. Her body was found in a jungle seven days after the incident.
Munda, who was separated from his wife earlier, was arrested from Jharsuguda after recovery of the girl's body.
Ten days after being set up to try cases of sexual offences against women, a Dwarka fast-track court in Delhi on December 15 gave the death sentence to a 56-year-old farmhouse guard for raping and killing a three-year-old girl in April 2011.
On Januray 11, a lower court in Odisha's Cuttack district had sentenced a man to life imprisonment for raping a minor girl.