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Bihar court awards death sentence to man convicted for rape, murder of child
Motihari additional district and session judge-14 D N Yadav awarded capital punishment to Dhruv Sahni, holding that this was among the rarest of the rare cases and the accused deserved maximum punishment.
A district and sessions court at Motihari in East Champaran district of north Bihar has awarded death sentence to a man accused of the rape and murder of a two-and-half -year-old girl in Chiraiyan police station area of the district on March 21, 2011.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on the accused, Dhruv Sahni, a resident of Akauna village in the district, who is lodged in the Motihari central jail since his arrest in 2011.
“Additional district and session judge-14 D N Yadav awarded capital punishment to Sahni, holding that this was among the rarest of the rare cases and the accused deserved maximum punishment for the inhuman and heinous crime,” East Champaran government counsel Subhash Chandra Yadav said.
Altogether nine prosecution witnesses, including the doctor who conduct autopsy of the victim, were examined by the court during the trial. According to the prosecution, the incident happened on the evening of Holi festival day in 2011.
The victim, who was playing outside her house, was taken to a nearby field by the accused. There, he raped her and slit her throat with a knife. He later attempted to obscure evidence by smearing the body with wet mud.
The incident occurred when the villagers, along with the victim’s family, were watching TV at a nearby house. When they returned home, they found the girl the girl missing. Later, a missing person case was lodged at Chiraiya police station against unidentified person(s).
The next day, the police recovered the body from a maize field and arrested Sahni. During interrogation, he confessed to his involvement in the rape and murder of the child. After Sahni’s statement, the police also recovered the knife used in crime.
Earlier, in June 2016, a fast track court in Raigarh (Chattisgarh) had awarded death penalty to a 23-year-old man for sexually assaulting and murdering a three-year-old girl.
