MP: Court awards death penalty to man for raping, killing minor in Indore

Indore (Madhya Pradesh) [India], February 6 : A special court on Monday awarded death penalty to a 31-year-old man in connection with raping and killing a seven-year-old girl in Madhya Pradesh's Indore district.
The court of special judge (POCSO) Surekha Mishra convicted Saddam with death penalty in section 302 for murder, life imprisonment in section 364 for abducting, 10 years of imprisonment each in section 363 of IPC and section 9/10 of POCSO Act and one year of imprisonment in section 342 for wrongful confinement.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 9000 on the convict and also directed the government to provide Rs 3 lakh assistance to the victim's family.
District Public Prosecutor Sanjeev Srivastava said that the case was related to an incident that occurred on September 23, 2022. The minor girl was playing in the Azad Nagar area of the district. The accused Saddam forcefully took the girl to his house. A 12-year-old boy was also playing along with the girl who saw Saddam carrying the girl.
The boy informed the nearby people about the matter, following which a crowd gathered at Saddam's house and Saddam killed the girl by stabbing her 29 times. Later, the police caught him from the spot with the help of the crowd, Srivastava said.
"During the trial of the case, a total of 23 witnesses, including the boy who was an eye-witness were examined. The boy illustrated the entire incident before the court, which was accepted by the court," he added.
"Saddam described himself as a mentally disturbed patient before the court but the prosecution countered it and said that if Saddam was a mentally disturbed then, he could have harmed the boy as well, but he only took the girl. The court considered the case to be 'rarest of rare' in nature and awarded capital punishment to the accused," Srivastava added.