Bombay HC upholds death sentence of 30-year-old Thane man for raping, killing 3-year-old
“The act of the accused is gruesome and is committed in a diabolic manner,” HC observed, while confirming the death sentence of the 30-year-old resident of Ghodbunder Road, Thane
The Bombay high court (HC) on Thursday confirmed the death sentence of a Thane man for raping and brutally murdering a three-year-old girl eight years ago.
“The act of the accused is gruesome and is committed in a diabolic manner,” said the division bench of justice Sadhana Jadhav and justice Prithviraj Chavan, while confirming capital punishment for 30-year-old Ramkirat Munilal Goud, a resident of Anand Nagar slum on Ghodbunder Road.
“It is a heinous offence. It is unimaginable that a cheerful, frolicking child enjoying with her pet would provoke the feelings of lust in a man who is a father of two daughters and a son,” said the bench and concluded that the perversity in the mind of the accused was apparent on the face of the record.
According to the prosecution, the incident took place on September 30, 2013, when the child was playing outside her house in Thane with her pet dog. The girl went missing from the spot, following which her parents search in the area. They found the dog tied in a nearby chawl, but could not find the girl. Eventually, on October 2, her body was found thrown in a mud pond in the vicinity. The autopsy had revealed that the girl had a fatal head injury.
On October 3, the police arrested Goud and booked him under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, 2012, for raping and murdering the child. On March 8, 2019, a special Pocso court in Thane convicted him on the basis of circumstantial evidence and sentenced him to death.
The high court on Thursday upheld his conviction and confirmed the capital punishment, observing that the autopsy revealed that the child had been brutally sexually assaulted before she was murdered. The cause of death was “death due to head injury with extensive genital injuries.”
The bench accepted the argument of additional public prosecutor Mankunwar Deshmukh that the act committed by the accused was gruesome and revolted human conscience, and the brutality itself showed that the question of any other sentence except death penalty was unquestionably foreclosed.
The court observed, “In the present case, looking at the monstrous act of the convict, it is apparent that the appellant had not, for a moment thought of the precious life of the child. It did not strike him for a moment that he himself happens to be a father of two daughters. The crime smacks of degradation of a girl child, depravity and perversity of his mind. The child was sexually assaulted in barbaric and inhuman manner. It is diabolic in nature and thereafter, it was a brutal murder which makes it the rarest of rare case.”
“The act of rape and the manner in which the child was murdered and abandoned in the muddy pond invites indignation and abhorrence. Hence, the death penalty awarded to the accused deserves to be confirmed,” the bench added.
Convict on death row freed
Meanwhile, the bench on Thursday acquitted Rahimuddin Shaikh, a convict sentenced to death sentence for raping two women and killing one of them at Belapur in Navi Mumbai in 2012. The bench allowed Shaikh’s appeal, observing that the prosecution had failed to prove his role in the offence of murdering a rag picker and injuring another after raping both of them. He was given the benefit of doubt and was acquitted of all charges levelled against him.
