September 19, 2018
On Wednesday, a Court here awarded death sentence to a contractual teacher for raping a four-year-old girl in this Madhya Pradesh district nearly three months ago.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Dinesh Kumar Sharma awarded the Death Penalty to Mahendra Singh Gond (23), under IPC Section 376 AB (rape on woman under 12 years of age) & Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The child, who was raped on 1st July, is still in a critical condition & undergoing treatment at a Delhi-based hospital.
The Court also sentenced the convict to 7 years of rigorous imprisonment for kidnapping the girl.
"The court awarded the death penalty to Gond after recording the statements of the girl & her parents over video-conferencing as they're in Delhi," district prosecution officer Rampal Singh told .
The judge cross-examined 21 prosecution witnesses.
Rampal Singh told, Gond was friendly with the victim's family. On the night of 1st July, he went to their place in a village here in an inebriated condition to meet the girl's father. There he saw the girl sleeping next to her father on a cot outside their house. He returned home after meeting the girl's father.
After some time, Gond came back & spotted the girl alone on the cot as her father had gone to relieve himself, Singh said.
"Taking advantage of the situation, Gond took the girl away from her house & raped her. After the sexual assault, he dumped her into bushes," he added.
When the girl's father returned & didn't find his daughter, he raised an alarm & the family launched a search for her. Later, they found her lying in the thick bushes.
Gond was later arrested by the police and a charge sheet was filed against him. Madhya Pradesh was the 1st state to enact a law last December, providing for death penalty for rapists of girls below 12.
The Centre brought an amendment in the IPC to punish the rapists of minor girls below 12 with death on 21st April 2018.
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