E-Paper
Kerala judge awards death penalty to man convicted of rape, murder of 5-yr-old
According to the prosecution, the accused abducted the girl from her house while her mother was busy with household chores
NEW DELHI: A 29-year-old man convicted for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl in July this year was on Tuesday sentenced to death by a special court in Ernakulam.
Additional district and sessions judge K Soman, the designated judge for cases registered under the Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences Act, convicted Asfaq Alam on November 4 for abducting, raping and strangling to death a minor girl, the daughter of a migrant couple, in Aluva on July 28.
The incident had sent shockwaves through Kerala for the brutal manner in which Alam assaulted and killed the girl, before bundling her tiny body in a plastic bag and burying it under a mound of garbage in a yard in Aluva, a town on the outskirts of Kochi.
The accused had abducted the girl from her rented home while her mother was busy with household chores.
The police moved fast as soon as the girl was reported missing and identified the accused with the help of CCTV footage. When a police team tracked him down within hours of the crime on July 28, he was drunk.
Police filed the chargesheet within 30 days. The trial started in Ernakulam on October 4 and was completed in 26 days.
