A POCSO (Protection ofchildren from sexual offences) court in Bhilwara district, Rajasthan on Monday awarded death sentence to two men for raping and burning alive a minor girl in August last year. The duo had raped the girl and thrown her into a coal furnace.
The accused, identified as Kalu and Kanha, were awarded death penalty by the court, news agency PTI reported citing Special Public Prosecutor Mahaveer Singh Kishnawat.
The POCSO court had convicted them on Saturday for the crime that took place in August 2023. However, seven others who had been accused of destroying evidence were acquitted by the court. The acquittal will be challenged in the High Court, Kisnawat said.
The 14-year-old girl had gone missing while she had gone to graze cattle on August 2 last year.
“The court today held Kalu and Kanha guilty of gang-raping and killing the girl. Seven people, three women and four men, who were accused of destroying evidence, were acquitted,” Kishnawat stated on Saturday, following the duo's conviction.
Both of them belonged to the Kalbelia tribe and were involved in making coal furnaces in Bhilawara.
Assuming that the minor girl had died following the gang rape, the accused had thrown the victim in the coal furnace, as per media reports.
However, the girl was alive when she was thrown and passed away due to the burn injuries, the forensic report stated.
The Investigating Officer of the case faced challenges in the case as some of the charred body parts of the teenager were recovered from the furnace, while others were scattered at various places. He had to locate and carefully collect these parts and preserve them to facilitate a thorough forensic examination.
The incident was revealed after locals spotted one of the five furnaces being operated without it being covered. This made them suspicious and besides this, the locals also spotted the girl's bracelet in it.
Subsequently, they alerted the police, and later the bones of the 14-year-old girl were recovered from the furnace.