Tripura man sentenced to death for rape, murder of 4 yr-old girl

This is the first instance of capital punishment awarded in the district of Khowai in Tripura. Statements of total 35 prosecution witnesses were recorded in the case

A Tripura court on Wednesday awarded death penalty to a man after he was found guilty of rape and murder of a four-and-a-half-year-old girl last year in Khowai district. This is the first instance of capital punishment recorded in the district till date.

The girl went missing on February 22 last year and her body with injuries was recovered from a forest after six days.

The convict, Kalicharan Tripura, was charged with rape, murder, causing disappearance of evidence of offence or sharing false information to screen offender after one year of submissions and trial.

District court judge and special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act judge Shankari Das gave the capital punishment order after investigating officer of the case, Bidyeshwar Sinha, submitted his report. Statements of total 35 prosecution witnesses were recorded in the case.

The girl went missing on February 22 last year from Teliamura’s Duski area of Khowai district. Her body with injuries was later recovered from a forest after six days.

“This is one of the rarest of the rare cases. We are glad to give justice to the family of the deceased,” said counsel Bikash Deb, who moved the case in the prosecution’s side along with advocate Ajit Sarkar.

A 2020 report of the home department said that a total of 207 persons were arrested in 10 months for their involvement in different crimes against women from September 2020. In the same period, 128 rape cases out of total 240 crime against women cases were reported.

The rate of crime against women in Tripura was the highest in the country with 46.5 percent in 2010 according to reports of the National Crime Records Bureau ( NCRB). The state ranked 14th in crimes against women in 2017.