Sundargarh: A POCSO court in Odisha’s Sundargarh on Thursday sentenced a man to death for abduction and rape of a four-year-old girl at Dengibhadi under Town police limits in 2016.
Judge Mahendra Kumar Sutradhar pronounced the capital punishment after examining 35 witnesses during the trial and also directed the District Legal Services Authority to pay compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the girl’s mother.
The convict, Sanjeeb Kerketta, had killed the girl after kidnapping and raping her at an under-construction building. He abducted the girl around 10 pm on October 21, 2016 while she along with her widowed mother, and three siblings were watch television at their neighbour’s house. The woman tried to save her daughter, but in vain. She lodged a complaint with Town police station the following morning. Police recovered the body from an under construction house near a rice mill at Dengibadi on October 25, 20106.
Kerketta, who was then 36 years old, was arrested two days later under Sections 450, 366, 376(2)(i), 376 (A), 302 and 201 of the IPC and Section 6 of the POCSO Act.
