A man was sentenced to death on Monday by a Nagpur court for raping and murdering a 5-year-old girl in 2019.
Sanjay Puri (32) was sentenced to death by District Judge and Additional Sessions Judge S R Padwal under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, Section 376(A)(B) of IPC and Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, said Special Public Prosecutor Prashant Kumar Sathianathan.
The body of the girl, with severe head injuries, was found on December 6, 2019 from a farm plot in Linga village in Kalmeshwar tehsil where she resided with her labourer parents. A piece of cloth and rod were stuffed into her mouth, while a blood-stained boulder lay nearby.
The police probe revealed she was raped and bludgeoned to death, after which Puri, who worked on the farm as a watchman, was arrested, the SPP said.
A total of 26 witnesses were examined in the case, he said.
The court sentenced Puri to life imprisonment under section 376(2) of the IPC and under section 4 of the POCSO Act, as well as seven years in jail under section 10 of POCSO Act, Sathianathan said.
All the sentences will run concurrently, the SPP informed.
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