Indore man gets death sentence for raping, killing 4-month-old girl

Bhopal: A local court in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday sentenced a man to death for raping and murdering a 4-month-old girl in district headquarters town of Indore in the state on April 20.

Indore session court judge Varsha Sharma while awarding death sentence to the accused, 21-year-old Naveen Gadke, termed it an “inhuman act” and observed, “Such a small child who didn’t know other than crying was treated inhumanly.”

Before pronouncing the verdict in the case, the judge asked the accused what punishment he thought he deserved for committing such a heinous crime.

To which, the accused replied that whatever punishment the court deemed appropriate.

He however appealed to the court to fulfil his last wish to arrange a meeting with his mother and sister before he was taken to jail. He was convicted in just 21 days after he committed the crime. 

This was the second speediest disposal of such case in the country. The trial in the case was completed in record seven working days.

A Jodhpur court in Rajasthan had earlier disposed of a case relating to rape of a foreign woman in just 18 days.

“We are happy that the accused was given death sentence,” parents of the victim who were also present in the court told reporters after the judgment. 

The accused, a cousin of victim’s mother, took the baby on his shoulder when she was sleeping along with her parents in an open space near the Rajwada fort in Indore city to the basement of a nearby commercial complex where he raped her and then threw her from a height leading to her death.

The CCTV installed in the area caught him taking the baby on his shoulder to the commercial complex and then coming out alone after some time. Later, the blood soaked body of the baby was recovered at the basement of the complex.