INDIA: GHAZIABAD MAN GETS DEATH SENTENCE FOR RAPING, MURDERING FRIEND'S 2-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER

January 21, 2021:

A special POCSO court sentenced a man to death on 20 January 2021 for raping and murdering a two-year-old girl in Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh), the verdict coming within a month of the crime.
The girl was found behind the roadside bushes in Kavi Nagar area on 21 December, public prosecutor Utkarsh Vats told the media.
Special POCSO court judge Mahendra Srivastava awarded the death penalty to Chandan, who was a close friend of the girl's father. Ten witnesses were produced before the court, Vats said, describing the verdict within 29 days as a landmark.
“There is no scope for reform in the accused. This case is in the rarest of rare category,” the judge observed. “It is worth mentioning that a two-and-a-half-year-old girl does not even understand what her gender is. She probably didn’t understand what was happening to her and why.”
Deputy Superintendent of Police Avinash Kumar said the culprit was arrested soon after the crime and a charge sheet was filed on 29 December.
The case was registered under IPC sections 376AB (rape, a section applied when the victim is under 12), 302 (murder), 201 (destruction of evidence), and sections 5 and 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The conviction came almost within a month, on 18 January.