Minor's brutal rape-murder: Man gets triple death sentence; his mother, sister sent to 2-year-jail

Bhopal: A special court in Bhopal on Tuesday sentenced a 30-year-old man to 'triple death sentence' by convicting him under three charges for the brutal rape and murder of a minor girl last year.

Special judge court Kumudini Patel, hearing cases pertaining to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, also sentenced the mother and sister of the male accused, Atul Nihale, to two-year jail term in connection with the case.

The five-year-old girl from Shahjahanabad area of Bhopal was raped and murdered in September 2024, prosecution's public relation officer Manoj Tripathi said in a statement.

The man was convicted and sentenced to death for the crime while his mother and sister were found guilty of hiding the crime.

According to the official, this is for the first time that a person was awarded a triple death sentence in the state.

The minor girl had gone missing after she left the flat of her uncle in Shahjahanabad locality on September 24, 2024. Before stepping out, she told her grandmother that she would be back in 15 minutes.

But when the girl did not return home, her grandmother started looking for her. But after failing to find her, her family members informed the police. The police used technical surveillance, roped in a dog squad.

During the search operation, the police noticed foul smell coming from the flat of accused Nihale. When police got the door opened, the accused's mother Basanti Bai and sister Chanchal told the cops that the foul smell was due to dead rats and they had just cleaned the floor with phenyl.

When the police continued to search the place, the two women started shouting and stopped the cops from the search. However, the women police took them aside and search continued and it was found that the smell was emanating from a white plastic water tank and the police team found the victim's body inside it.

After the examination, the doctors confirmed that the girl was brutally raped and her private part was badly injured, he said.

After the interrogation of Atul Nihale and his mother and sister, the police recovered the clothes of the victim and knife used in the crime.

The prosecution PRO said that Nihale admitted the crime and told police that his mother and sister helped in hiding the crime.

The DNA test also confirmed the rape by Nihale, he said.

While handing the capital punishment to Nihale, Judge Patel said the "demonic nature" of the accused, the way of committing the crime, as part of which he widened the private part of the girl with a knife and when she resisted, he attacked and killed the girl and tried to dispose of the body in a planned manner.

Looking at the nature of the crime committed by him, it cannot be imagined at all that there is any scope for any improvement in the accused. The accused is extremely cruel, ruthless, gruesome, sadistic and bestial by nature, the judge said.

The judge stated that if there is any case for which death penalty should be awarded, then it is this case.

The court convicted Nihale under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 64 (A), 66 and 103 besides other provisions of BNS and POCSO Act.

Nihale's mother Basanti Bai and sister Chanchal were also convicted under BNS section 238 (A).