Sirsa, November 18
A Sirsa court has sentenced two youths to death for rape and murder of a six-year-old girl, who was thrown into a sewerage tank by the accused after the crime at Dabwali town in January this year.

The order was pronounced by Additional District and Sessions Judge RP Goyal.

On January 25, 2013, the duo --- Vikas (20) alias Vicky and Pawan (22) alias Sheela --- took away the victim, who was playing with her cousin outside her house.

The girl’s relatives lodged a complaint with the police the next day. The victim’s cousin revealed the identity of Vikas and Pawan, who were later arrested.

The two confessed to their crime and told the police that they raped the girl and also had unnatural sex with her. When the victim fell unconscious, they threw her into a tank full of sewerage water.

The girl’s body was recovered by the police with great difficulty after three days. A case was registered under Sections 364, 376 (2) G, 377,302, 201, 34 of the IPC and  Section 5 and 6 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012.

While the victim’s counsel cited their young age, poor socio-economic status and reformatory approach of the system for a less harsh sentence, public prosecutor KK Sukhija prayed for an exemplary punishment in view of the nature of crime.

“The accused caused extreme torture upon a small hapless and innocent child and threw her in a pond of dirty water in the month of January. This shows extreme depravity of minds of the accused…The brutality by the accused was so extreme that it calls for the extreme penalty of death and the ghastly act of the accused falls in the category of the rarest of the rare cases,” the court ruled.