5 men sentenced to death for gangrape-murder of girl, killing of her 2 family members in Chhattisgarh

Korba: A fast track court in Korba district of Chhattisgarh has sentenced five men to death for gangraping and killing a 16-year-old girl and murder of her two family members in 2021.

The Fast Track Special Court (FTSC) sentenced another accused in the case to life imprisonment.

Additional sessions judge Mamta Bhojwani convicted Santram Majhwar (49), Abdul Jabbar (34), Anil Kumar Sarthi (24), Pardeshi Ram (39) and Anand Ram Panika (29) under sections 302 (murder), 376 (2)G (gangarape) and other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and provisions of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and sentenced them to death, said special public prosecutor Sunil Kumar Mishra on Wednesday.

The court sentenced another accused Umashanakar Yadav (26) to life imprisonment, he said.

While delivering the judgement on January 15, the court said that this inhuman and cruel act of the accused is extremely perverted, heinous, brutal and cowardly, he said.

The order copy was made available on Monday.

On January 29, 2021, the teenage girl was allegedly raped and bludgeoned with stones before she was dumped in a forest leading to her death near Gadhuproda village under Lemru police station area of Korba district.

The accused also killed the girl's father, aged around 60, and his four-year-old granddaughter who were with her.

The incident came to light a few days later when the deceased man's son lodged a missing persons report at Lemru police station, following which the cops swung into action and rounded up six accused following their interrogation.

Mishra said that the police found in their investigation that the main accused Manjhwar, who had employed the victim's family as his cattle grazer, was pressuring the girl to become his second wife. When she and her family opposed this, Manjhwar and his five associates raped and killed her and also murdered her two family members.

The victims belonged to the Pahadi Korwa tribal community, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG).

The court has said in its judgment that this inhuman and cruel act of the accused is extremely perverted, heinous, brutal and cowardly, because they have killed three innocent and weak people to satisfy their lust. This has shocked the collective conscience of the entire society, the lawyer said.

The court said that the accused raped and killed the girl and also killed her two family members. Therefore, this court has no other option left except choosing the exception of the death penalty as compared to the general rule of life imprisonment, he said.