india

Updated: Jul 11, 2019 22:18 IST

A Bhopal court on Thursday awarded death sentence to a 33-year-old man for raping and strangling to death a nine-year-old girl, the judgment coming a little over a month after the June 8 incident.

Vishnu Bamore, a resident of Khandwa, was sentenced by the special Pocso (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) judge for separate offences under Indian Penal Code sections 302 (murder) and 376-A (for raping a girl below the age of 12).

The girl went missing after she came out of her house in the Kamla Nagar area here on June 8 to make a purchase. Her body was found the next morning near a drain in the area. Bamore, who is said to have been living in a rented place in the girl’s neighbourhood, was arrested in Mortakka village on June 10.

According to prosecution lawyer Maneesha Patel, this is the 27th instance of capital punishment being awarded to rapists of girls below the age of 12 years in Madhya Pradesh since the state government introduced the law in February 2018.

“While awarding the death penalty, special judge Kumudini Patel said she did not want to do so but the girl’s medical reports indicated that the convict had treated the girl inhumanely. For the barbaric and cruel act, he deserves capital punishment,” Patel said.

The convict was also sentenced to life for the offence of unnatural sex with the girl, state prosecution cell’s spokesperson, Sudha Vijay Singh Bhadoriya, said. He was awarded three years and seven years in jail under IPC sections 363 and 366, respectively, for kidnapping, and abduction for forced and illicit intercourse. The court ordered all the sentences to run concurrently, she said.

(With agency inputs)