Man sentenced to death on 30th day after raping, killing 7-yr-old girl

PTI, Oct 23, 2021, 9:36 AM IST

Jaipur: In an apparently emerging trend defying the justice-delayed-justice-denied syndrome, yet another court in Rajasthan sentenced a child rapist and killer to death on Friday, barely in a month after the commission of the crime.

A special POCSO court in Merta city in the Nagaur district awarded the death penalty to a 25-year-old man after convicting him of raping and killing a seven-year-old girl on September 20 this year in a village under the Padukalan police station in the district.

Special Judge Rekha Rathore sentenced the convict Dinesh Jat, a maternal uncle of the victim, terming his offense as “the rarest of rare” after holding the trial continuously for 11 days, Special Public Prosecutor Sumer Singh said.

Earlier on October 5, a Jaipur court had sentenced a 25-year-old man to 20 years in jail for raping a 9-year-old girl, imposing the punishment within nine days of the commission of the crime.

Setting a benchmark on the swiftness of the delivery of the verdict that, experts say, also enhances the deterrence value of the punishment, the special Jaipur POCSO court, had decided the case within five working days after filing of the charge sheet by the police in barely 18 hours.

Additional Sessions Judge Rathore held the continuous trial after the Nagaur police completed the probe into the case in barely six days and filed the charge sheet on September 27, said SPP Singh.

During the trial, the ASJ examined 29 prosecution witnesses while the defense was able to put up only one witness in defense of accused Jat, he said.

The court, however, dismissed the defense witness’ deposition claiming accused Jat to be suffering from a mental disability as it found the accused to be fully mentally fit, said Singh.

According to the prosecution, the girl’s maternal uncle had on September 20 lured her to an agriculture farm, where he raped her and fearing that she might disclose the incident to other family members, had killed her and dumped her body behind bushes.

On a complaint lodged by the girl’s mother, police managed to recover the victim’s body and arrest Dinesh Jat the same day. Expediting the investigation into the case, police filed the charge sheet in just six days in the POCSO Court.

Chief minister Ashok Gehlot too welcomed the prompt court decision and swift police probe into the case.