Thane: A 30-year-old man was on Wednesday sentenced to death by the district court after it found him guilty of raping and murdering a six-year-old girl.
District Judge Mridula Bhatia observed that it was a case under the rarest of rare category and noted that the prosecution has proved the charges against Arun Rama Lote under various sections of IPC, including 302 (murder), 363 (kidnapping), 376 (rape) and also under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The accused deserves death, the judge said.
Wada Police Inspector Sanjay Hazare, who investigated the case, told the court that the victim's family lived in Kudus. Her father used to sell eatables on a roadside. The victim also had two elder siblings. The accused worked in a poultry farm.
On February 24, 2014, the accused approached the victim's father and enquired as to why he had not started his work that evening. To this, the girl's father said he had not brought kerosene from home.
The accused helped him by bringing kerosene from the victim's home and later went again to their house and lured the girl on the pretext of getting her some eatables.
He then took her on a two-wheeler, got her a snack and later took her to a field at an isolated place and allegedly raped her. When the girl started shouting, the accused strangulated her, according to prosecution.
The accused had also tried to lure another girl of same age in neighbourhood, but she had refused to accompany the accused as he was not known to her, and thus was saved, the court was told.
District Government Pleader Sangita Phad, while arguing the case, sought capital punishment for the accused and said this was a heinous crime on a child who had not experienced life.
The court concluded the verdict based on circumstantial and medical evidence while 16 witnesses deposed in the case. After convicting the accused, when the judge asked him whether he should be given life imprisonment or death, the man kept quiet.
