Delhi HC upholds man’s life term for murder of 2-yr-old girl

 The Delhi High Court on Tuesday upheld the life term awarded to a man for kidnapping and murdering a two-year-old girl here in 2016.

The prosecution said the accused first kidnapped the child from outside her house and later hit her against the staircase of a temple, which ultimately resulted in her death.

A bench of justices Mukta Gupta and Poonam A Bamba dismissed the appeal filed by the accused and said the prosecution has proved the case beyond reasonable doubt.

“The prosecution has been able to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. Thus, we find no merit in this appeal. Appeal is accordingly dismissed,” said the court.

The appellant contended before the high court that the prosecution had failed to prove that he had caused any injury to the deceased causing her death and that there were material contradictions and inconsistencies in the testimonies of the witnesses.

During trial, he had also claimed that the deceased had accidentally slipped from the lap of another person, the eyewitness, who was holding her and in order to divert the issue, a false hue and cry was created to falsely implicated him and there was no motive for him to commit the crime.

The court observed that non proving of motive on the part of the appellant is not always fatal to the prosecution case and as per the post-mortem report, the cause of death was stated to be “cranio cerebral damage consequent upon blunt force impact to the head”.

“In the facts of the instant case, as the prosecution has been able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the appellant had hit the deceased, an infant, against the floor/stairs of the mandir causing injuries on the head and other parts,” said the court said.

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The prosecution opposed the appeal and said the testimony of witnesses proved that the appellant was undisputedly present at the spot and committed the heinous offence.

The mother of the victim had told the trial court that the appellant lived in the adjacent room as a tenant in the same house in which she lived along with her family members including the one year and four months old deceased and he had often threatened her children.

In October 2018, the trial court had sentenced the appellant to life imprisonment after his conviction under sections 363 (kidnapping) and 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code.