A special court awarded death penalty to a 45-year-old man for repeatedly raping and impregnating his 17-year-old mentally challenged daughter before killing her.
Special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act Judge Ashok Choudhary said the crime was shameful for “human society”, and also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on the convict, according to Premnarayan Namdev, public prosecutor, POCSO court-1. Namdev said the girl was found dead at her home in Nayapura police station area of the city on May 13, 2015.
Her father, who worked as a guard at a warehouse in the city, himself lodged a report at Nayapura police station on the day she was killed, alleging that when he returned home in the evening he found his daughter dead, the public prosecutor said.
Based on his complaint, police lodged a case against unidentified persons and initiated an investigation, Namdev said, adding, it was revealed during the probe that the victim was four-month pregnant when she was killed.
After the postmortem report revealed pregnancy, the police collected DNA samples, which confirmed that the accused had fathered the foetus.
The statements of the deceased minor’s mother corroborated police’s theory as she said her husband had been raping their daughter for long, resulting in her pregnancy.
The police then arrested the father, he said.
In its 36-page verdict, the POCSO court termed the crime “most heinous” and shameful for “human society”.
Namdev said the court convicted him under Sections 302 (murder) and 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code.
Eighteen witnesses recorded their statement in the case, the prosecutor said
