16 May 2005 :

India's Supreme Court ordered the death sentence for a man accused of raping and murdering a six-year-old girl, overturning a lower court ruling acquitting him. The country's top court said the case fell in the category of the "rarest of rare," a Press Trust of India report said. India applies the death sentence only in what are considered the most heinous crimes. A trial court initially convicted the man, identified by the news agency as Satish. But the ruling was overturned by a higher court which said circumstantial evidence was not a sufficient basis to find him guilty. Witnesses testified the child was last seen on a bicycle with Satish in March 16, 2003. Her body was found a day later in nearby sugarcane fields. 
The Supreme Court set aside the High Court order, saying leniency in punishing grave crimes would have "serious consequences."