NEW DELHI: Ten days after being set up to try cases of sexual offences against women , a fast-track court in Dwarka, west Delhi, on Tuesday gave the death sentence to a 56-year-old farmhouse guard for raping and killing a three-year-old girl in 2011.

This was the first sentence handed out by any of the fast-track courts set up in the capital after the Nirbhaya gang-rape .

Terming the crime as “most diabolic and gruesome”, additional sessions judge Virender Bhat sent the accused, Bharat Singh, to the gallows, saying the case fell in the “rarest of rare” category. The victim had died while she was being raped and her internal organs had come out, the court said.

“There is a steep rise in crimes against women, particularly minor girls. Time has come when the courts have to take a stern view of such crimes and inflict harsher punishment possible upon the perpetrators… so that a stern message is sent to society,” the court said.

On April 10, 2011, the girl was returning to her house in Kapashera in southwest Delhi when she strayed towards the farmhouse. The girl was called inside by Singh, who was alone on duty, and was raped by him, the prosecution had said.

The court noted that the girl was subjected to his “lust” in such a “ghastly” manner that she died during the crime. The convict was so merciless that after the girl died he threw her body in some bushes inside the farmhouse. It was discovered a couple of days later after the place started stinking,” it said.

The court said the brutality of the crime was similar to that of Nirbhaya’s. “He did not heed the cries of the minor victim… It was a ghastly and heinous crime, and the convict opted to do it in such a brutal manner that her internal organs were pulled out,” it said.

The convict was awarded capital punishment for murder under section 302 and life sentence for rape (section 376) besides a fine of Rs 1 lakh.

The defence’s argument that section 302 was not made out as Singh had no intention of killing the girl, did not impress the court. Holding Singh guilty of murder, the court noted that medical evidence clearly showed that the girl had died due to the commission of rape.

Demolishing the arguments of the defence, the court said the fact that he committed rape on a three-year-old girl knowing that the child would not be able to stand the pain and trauma, a case of murder was made out. “Such persons are a menace to society and he deserve no leniency,” the court said.

Initially, the girl's father had lodged a complaint with the police that his daughter was missing. After the girl's body was recovered, a case of rape and murder was registered and the case was sent for trial.

After being set up on January 5, the fast-track court concluded the case within 10 days of getting it from another sessions court. At that time, the case was at the stage of finishing the recording of evidence. Within 10 days, ASJ Bhat recorded the statement of the accused, heard the final arguments in the case and pronounced the judgment.

Times View

We have repeatedly sought fast-track courts for certain categories of cases, like sexual offences. Given the extent to which the Indian judicial system is clogged today, this is necessary to ensure that the law has a deterrent effect in such cases. However, fast-track courts must not mean that the judicial process is in any way short-circuited. Due process of law must remain sacrosanct as must be the principle that wrongly convicting an innocent is worse than allowing some of the guilty to escape. At no stage must it appear that the judiciary is swayed by the public mood into handing out more severe verdicts than are called for. The judiciary remains one of the most respected institutions in India and that must not change.