Bhubaneswar (Odisha): Four death sentences have been pronounced in the last three months in Odisha.
The death sentences, under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO), were pronounced for the rape of minor girls in Anugul, Mayurbhanj, Jagatsinghpur and in Salepur.
July 2019 - In the fast-track trial of a minor girl rape case, the Angul Additional District and Sessions Judge Court awarded death penalty to Anam Dehury to life imprisonment for destroying evidence and youth for kidnapping, raping and murdering a 12-year-old girl at Kangula village in the district in January this year.
The POCSO court pronounced the judgement after examining 36 witnesses and evidence, Special Public Prosecutor Saroj Kumar Pattanayak said.
On January 20, the girl was going to give food to her father, who was working on a farm, when Dehury forcibly took her to a forest and raped her.
He later killed the girl as he was afraid of getting caught, he added.
The police arrested Dehury from Kolkata after tracking his mobile phone and filed a charge sheet within a month of the incident.
August 2019 - A fast track court (under POCSO) awarded death sentence to a 35-year-old man for rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl in Betnoti area of Mayurbhanj district in June 2018.
The accused Jamini Kanta Mahanta, an acquaintance of the child had taken the victim for a cycle ride on the pretext of watching Raja festivities.
The accused later raped the victim and strangulated her to death.
The court has found the accused guilty of raping and murdering the girl.
He took her to the jungle where he raped and murdered her by strangulating her.
The court considered it a heinous crime and awarded death penalty to him," said Special Public Prosecutor Avinna Pattnayak.
It is the first conviction under the POCSO Act in Mayurbhang district, he said.
September 2019 - A POCSO court in Odisha's Jagatsinghpur district awarded death penalty to Kalia Manna alias Laba of Gadaharishpur village under Erasama police limits in the district for raping and murdering a minor girl last year.
Laba had raped and murdered a nine-year-old girl in Gadaharishpur on March 21, 2018.
The accused Laba Manna had raped and murdered the minor girl in a cashew field in Gadaharishpur under Erasama police station limits.
After committing the crime, Manna strangulated the girl to death apprehending that she may disclose the incident to others and abandoned the body in the field.
The body was recovered the next day and the police launched a manhunt for Manna based on clues obtained during an investigation.
Manna was picked up from Badambadi bus-stand in Cuttack the same day.
The POCSO court pronounced the verdict on the basis deposition of 25 witnesses and other evidence, Public Prosecutor Siba Prasad Majhi said.
He said this was the first death penalty pronounced by the special POCSO court in Jagatsinghpur.
Manna was convicted under section 376 (rape), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) and 302 (murder) of IPC and relevant provision of POCSO Act.
September 2019 - The special court awarded the death penalty to Mohammad Mustaq for raping and murdering a six-year-old girl of Salepur.
The court convicted Mustaq under sections 302, 363, 376 a-b of the IPC and section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The accused raped the six-year-old girl near a school in Salepur on April 21, 2018, he also tried to kill her by crushing her head with a stone.
The girl was found in a critical condition with deep injuries on her head, face and neck and groin areas from a school campus in Jagannathpur village under Salepur police station limits in the evening of April 21, 2018.
Mustaq of the village was arrested the day after the incident.
The girl died while undergoing treatment at the SCB Medical College and Hospital here on April 29, 2018.
The girl had gone to a kiosk in her village to purchase biscuits on that fateful evening but went missing.
She was later found lying unconscious in a pool of blood without clothes on her body inside the school campus.
After committing rape, the convict had brutally assaulted the girl apprehending trouble as she had raised an alarm.
Mustaq was booked under section 302 of the IPC after the girl died.
A 500-page charge-sheet was submitted in the case, in which 23 witnesses were examined, Nayak said.
This was the fourth death penalty awarded in less than two months in Odisha by POCSO courts.
It needs to mention that in all these cases the judgement was passed and the death sentence has been pronounced under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
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