Odisha court sentences rapist to death

A lower court in Odisha’s Angul district on Friday pronounced death penalty for a man for kidnapping, raping and brutally murdering a minor girl. The incident had occurred in Kangula village of the coastal district on January 20 this year. The trial of the case was conducted under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) act.

The perpetrator, 23-year-old Anam Dehury, had kidnapped the 12-year-old girl from the village road when she was on her way to her father’s shop to deliver lunch. Dehury took the girl to a nearby bush and raped her. Then he brutally killed the minor by smashing her head with a stone. The dead body of the girl was subsequently recovered from a drain near the spot of the crime.

The Angul police had formed four teams to nab the perpetrator, who had fled Odisha. The police managed to track him down and arrested him from a hotel in Kolkata in West Bengal, where he was working.

The death penalty pronounced by the additional district and session court, Angul has come as a major morale booster for individuals and organisations in the state, who have been demanding stringent punishment for persons involved in the sexual assault of minor minors. Odisha has witnessed a spurt in the crimes in the last few months.