A POCSO Act in Odisha’s Sundargarh Thursday awarded capital punishment to a 44-year-old man after convicting him for the abduction, rape and murder of a four-year-old eight years ago.
The additional district judge-cum-presiding officer of the special POCSO, Mahendra Kumar Sutradhar pronounced the capital punishment after examining 35 witnesses during the trial.
He also asked the district legal services authority to pay compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the girl’s widowed mother.
The court also directed the officers concerned to submit the proceedings to the Orissa High Court for ratification of the death sentence.
Sanjeeb Kerketta had killed the girl after kidnapping and raping her in an under-construction building.
He abducted the girl around 10 pm on October 21, 2016 when she along with her widowed mother and a sister were sleeping in their neighbour’s house.
When the mother failed to locate the girl that night, she lodged a complaint with the Sundergarh Town police station the next day. The girl’s body was found in an under construction house near a rice mill at Dengibadi on October 25, 2016.
Kerketta, was arrested two days later and tried under various sections of the IPC dealing with abduction, rape and killing besides the POCSO Act.
