A man accused of brutally murdering a minor girl by stabbing her 34 times for rejecting his proposal was given the death sentence by a Gujarati court in the Rajkot district on Monday, news agency PTI reported.
Jayesh Sarvaiya (26), who stabbed a Class 11 student 34 times for refusing to engage in a relationship with him, was given a death sentence by the court of additional district and sessions judge R R Chaudhary in Jetpur.
The accused also wounded the girl's brother, who attempted to interfere during the March 2021 incident, as per the report.
According to special public prosecutor Janak Patel, the court determined that this was a "rarest of the rare case," as defined by the Supreme Court in the Nirbhaya case, the report said.
Sarvaiya was charged with violating pertinent parts of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, as stated in the report.
"Under section 302 of the IPC, the court sentenced the accused to death and fine him Rs 5,000... It was the kind of murder that shook the entire community and was thus taken seriously," Patel said, PTI reported.
According to him, the convict has been given a month to file an appeal before the high court.
As per the report, the accused and victim were both residents of Jetalsar village in the district's Jetpur taluka. On March 16, 2021, the man went to the victim's residence with a proposition after harassing her.
Sarvaiya thrashed the girl and stabbed her many times outside her house when she tried to flee, enraged by her refusal.
Shocked by the brutality of the killing, locals had demanded that the accused be given capital punishment and even observed a bandh and took out a protest march, the report said.
(With Inputs From PTI)