Fast track court awards death to man for minor's rape & murder

A 56-year-old man was today given death penalty by a fast track court, set up recently to try exclusively the cases of crime against women, for raping and murdering a minor girl.

Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat who heads the fast track court at Dwarka court complex, awarded the capital punishment to Bharat Singh, a guard at a farmhouse in West Delhi, while terming his act as "heinous" and the "rarest of the rare."

Singh had raped the three-year-old daughter of a rickshaw puller two years ago and the victim had died during the commission of the offence.

"There cannot be anything worse than this that a man can do while raping a minor. He did not heed the cries of the minor victim during the commission of the offence. It was a ghastly and heinous crime and the convict opted to do it in such a brutal manner that her internal organs were pulled out," the judge who heads one of the five fast track courts said.

The court imposed upon Singh the death sentence and a fine of Rs 50,000 under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). It also handed down life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 50,000 under section 376 (rape) of the IPC.

The court while terming the offence committed by Singh as the "rarest of rare" said the minor girl was subjected to his "lust" in such a "ghastly" manner that the girl died on the spot.

The court also observed in its order that the convict was in a commanding position during the commission of the offence and the minor girl could not have even escaped his "clutches."
'
"Such persons are a menace to the society" and he deserves no leniency," the court said .

The court, while awarding the capital punishment, said the convict was so merciless that after the girl died he threw her body into bushes inside the farmhouse and the body was discovered only a couple of days later after a foul smell began emanating from it.

According to the prosecution, the child was playing outside her house at Kapashera in West Delhi on April 10, 2011 evening but while returning home, she lost her way and strayed towards the nearby farmhouse.

The girl was called inside the farmhouse by Singh, who was alone there on duty, and was raped by him, the prosecution had said.

The prosecution had also said that after realising that the girl was dead, Singh threw her body at a secluded spot inside the farmhouse and fled the area much before his shift got over.

It had also said he did not throw the body outside the farmhouse for the fear of being spotted by workers engaged in road construction.

Initially, the girl's father had lodged a complaint with the police that his daughter was missing. The girl's body, however, was recovered two days after she had gone missing.