Man convicted of gang-rape and murder of 6-year-old girl in 2018
GHAZIABAD: A Ghaziabad court Thursday convicted a 24-year-old man of abducting, gang-raping and murdering a six-year-old girl whose body was discovered on the terrace of a mosque in Muradnagar in October 2018. One other accused in the case was declared a juvenile during trial and his case was transferred to a juvenile court. The sentencing hearing will take place on February 24.
According to the prosecution, the girl ’s went missing on October 6, 2018, from outside her house. Her body was found on the roof of a nearby mosque, the next morning. A post-mortem examination confirmed that she has been gang-raped before being strangled. Given the location of the body, police had to heighten security in the area to prevent an escalation in communal tensions.
The prosecution, during the course of the hearing, argued that the two accused lured her to their house where they sexually assaulted her and then murdered her. The body was later taken and dumped on the roof of a nearby mosque.
The 24-year-old accused was a production officer with a pharmaceutical company, while the juvenile, a class 9 student, is his cousin.
“His cousin was declared juvenile during the course of trial and his case was directed to be run separate at a juvenile court. The 24-year-old man was held guilty in the case by the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) court. We produced 10 prosecution witnesses, including two doctors. None of our witnesses turned hostile. We will demand the maximum punishment for the accused,” Utkarsh Vats, senior public prosecutor, said. The accused has been convicted under IPC sections 364 (kidnapping), 302 (murder), 201 (destruction of evidence), 376d (gang-rape), 376a (causing death or resulting in persistent vegetative state of victim) and also under the provisions of the PCOSO Act.
Pieces of fodder straw stuck to the body of the girl and label markings on the bag used to dispose of her body led the police to the accused. The police had, over the course of three days, combed through the houses in the locality and questioned several men before zeroing in on the home of the accused where star was stored in similar bags.
The police also reconstructed the crime scene three times. During one of the reconstructions, the police were able to ascertain that body was placed on the mosque roof by someone from a house adjacent to it.
After detailed investigation, the police on October 10, 2018, had arrested the prime accused and his cousin. “We will demand maximum punishment from the court for the accused. The hearing in the case will be on February 24. The court had heard the case on a day-to-day basis,” Vats said.