HC denies bail to man convicted of 5-year-old’s rape, murder

A division bench of Justices A.S. Gadkari and Kamal Khata said the evidence on record prima facie indicated that the minor victim had been sexually assaulted and murdered

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on March 6 refused to suspend the sentence of a man convicted of raping and killing a five-year-old girl in 2019, noting the crime as “brutal and horrific.”

HC denies bail to man convicted of 5-year-old’s rape, murder

A division bench of Justices A.S. Gadkari and Kamal Khata said the evidence on record prima facie indicated that the minor victim had been sexually assaulted and murdered.

According to the prosecution, the incident took place on February 2, 2019, when the accused, Mehandi Hasan Shaikh, allegedly abducted the child while she was sleeping with her parents on a footpath in Mahim.

Police were alerted after a child was lying in a lane behind a showroom nearby. She was taken to the Mahim police station but was declared dead.

Investigators relied on CCTV footage from the area and arrested Shaikh. He was charged with kidnapping, rape causing death and murder under the Indian Penal Code, along with aggravated sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

Medical reports indicated multiple internal and external injuries and said the cause of death was asphyxia due to strangulation along with genital injuries.

In April, 2024, a special court convicted Shaikh and sentenced him to imprisonment, holding that the prosecution had established his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

Shaikh challenged the conviction in the high court and sought suspension of his sentence pending the appeal.

However, the High Court bench rejected the plea last week, stating that the evidence on record established the crime of the accused.

“After perusing the evidence on record, it prima facie appears that it was a brutal and horrific murder committed by the applicant of the minor victim”, the bench said.