A Mahila court in Pudukkottai district of Tamil Nadu awarded the double death penalty to a 25-year-old man for raping and murdering a 7-year-old Dalit girl last year. The whole trial process was completed in six months.
The Mahila Court judge R Sathya awarded death penalty to the 25-year old convict, Samuel alias Raja under the charges of aggravated penetrative sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and also under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering a Dalit girl and seven years of imprisonment under the charges of kidnapping a child and destroying the evidence under Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
As per police officials, Raja is lodged in the Trichy prison and they have completed the entire investigation within three months after the case was registered.
On June 30 last year, Raja who was a flower seller by profession kidnapped a Dalit girl from Embal village of Pudukkottai district and took her to an isolated place where he committed the crime. Following a complaint from the victim’s parents, the dead body was recovered the following day with various wounds on her body. In the postmortem, it was discovered that she was raped.
A case was registered against the accused and was booked under Protection of Civil Rights, POCSO Act, and IPC. Although he managed to escape from the arrest, the police nabbed him the next day.
