Terming the act as "barbaric and inhuman", a court in Mumbai on Tuesday awarded a death sentence to a transgender person for raping and murdering a three-month-old girl.
Society's fabric gets damaged beyond repair due to such crimes, observed Aditee Kadam, special judge for cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).
A co-accused was, however, acquitted as the prosecution could not prove the case against him beyond reasonable doubt.
As per the prosecution, the 24-year-old accused abducted the girl who lived in a nearby house and murdered her after sexually assaulting her in July 2021.
He committed the ghastly act as the victim's family could not offer him the customary "vadhai" (gift) after the child's birth on account of the COVID-19 pandemic, the prosecution said.
The accused (name not disclosed to protect the victim's identity) had asked for a saree, Rs 1,100 and a coconut.
The court held that his motive was to create terror in the neighbourhood so that no one would dare refuse to offer gifts to him.
Injuries found on the body of the "totally defenceless" victim reflected "extreme brutality and depravity", it added.
"Safety of a girl child is of paramount importance to society...Accused had planned to commit the crime and executed it meticulously," the judge observed, noting that he buried the body in a marshy area to destroy evidence.
"Barbaric and inhuman manner of committing offence made it the 'rarest of rare case'. It is a crime that would send a chill down the spine of every parent of a girl child, especially in a poor locality," the court said.
The perversity in the crime was an aggravating circumstance, and there were no grounds to show leniency to the accused "who has no repentance", it added.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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