Man gets death penalty for rape and murder of 9-year-old girl in Ghaziabad
The police said they charge-sheeted the suspect within seven days of the incident and the court judgment was delivered within a span of five months and 28 days
A Ghaziabad court on Wednesday awarded the death penalty to a 24-year-old man who kidnapped, raped and murdered a nine-year-old girl at a village at Ghaziabad’s Modinagar in August last year.
The police said they charge-sheeted the suspect within seven days of the incident and the court judgment was delivered within a span of five months and 28 days. The court held him guilty on March 13 and the quantum of punishment was pronounced on Wednesday.
The prosecution case was that the accused, identified as Kapil Kumar Kashyap, on August 17, 2022, took away two cousins, aged nine and six years, on his bicycle to isolated fields located about one and a half kilometres from their home.
According to the police, the suspect left the six-year-old behind and went into the dense isolated fields with the older girl. He thereafter confessed to raping and killing her before fleeing the spot, police said.
Police said Kumar was arrested two days later and they prepared a list of 30 witnesses along with the charge-sheet. Fourteen of those witnesses were examined during the case trial.
“The police charge-sheeted the accused within seven days and also submitted a list of witnesses. The list included the six-year-old girl who was the prime eyewitness to the case. Based on evidence presented, the court on Wednesday sentenced the convict to death,” said Ravi Kumar, deputy commissioner of police (rural).
Police had initially registered an FIR under Section 363 (kidnapping) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and later added IPC sections related to murder (302) and rape (375), as well as Section 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault on a child) of the Protection of Children From Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.
The court order said the convict was awarded six years of rigorous imprisonment and fine of ₹10,000 under IPC Section 363, ₹50000 fine and life imprisonment under Section 302 IPC and death penalty under Section 6 of the Pocso Act.
The convict is married and lived in the same village as the girls. He told police that he had lured the two girls after offering to buy them ice creams.