Mysore: Man gets death sentence for rape, murder of 4-year-old
Mysore, Feb 24 (TNN): A Mysore court on Saturday awarded death sentence to a youth who raped and brutally killed four-year-old Seema (not her real name) on February 24, 2011.
Second additional and sessions court judge N Rudramuni sentenced Nanjappa, 21, to death for murdering the girl, and awarded him seven years in jail for raping her. The crime happened at her grandmother's village, Yedahalli, in Mysore taluk.
Public prosecutor HE Chinappa told STOI the court considered it the rarest of rare cases, in line with a 2006 Supreme Court ruling. The judge also took note of a Supreme Court decision upholding the death penalty to a 31-year-old man who had raped and killed a three-and-half-year-old girl in Maharashtra in December 2012.
"We didn't have any eyewitnesses, but based on circumstantial evidence and a confession Nanjappa made before a medical officer during the medical test, the court awarded him death for killing the kid brutally," Chinappa said.
A shopkeeper and a relative of Seema had last seen Nanjappa with her. Nanjappa claimed he had been falsely implicated because of rivalry.
Seema, a KG student of Shanthinikethana School, Yedahalli, went missing around 6.30pm on February 24, 2011. Three hours later, her grandmother Devamma and others found her body near a school in her village. She had wounds all over her body; her head had been smashed with a boulder.
Then deputy superintendent of police CD Jagadish, who was in charge of the investigation, said: "It was a ruthless and demonic act. We were taken aback by the brutality. We arrested the accused the next day."
Jagadish, now ACP of the Narasimha Raja sub-division, says Nanjappa, then 19, from the same village, lured the girl with a snack and took her to a secluded place.
Nanjappa tried to rape her but ran amok when Seema raised an alarm. He hit her with a boulder, bit her thigh, smashed her head against a wall and threw her body into a school nearby. After committing the crime, Nanjappa visited the girl's house twice asking where she was.
"As the investigation officer, I'm happy the judgment has come quickly. This should be a warning to wrongdoers," Jagadish said. The chargesheet was submitted within three months after the crime. Inspector Gopalkrishna and SI Ravikumar conducted the investigation.
Punishment
Section 302 (murder): Death
Section 376 (rape): Seven-year jail term
Fine: Rs 2 lakh
Timeline
Crime: Feb 24, 2011
Arrest of accused: Feb 25, 2011
Chargesheet filed: May26, 2011
Charges framed: Aug 25, 2011
Witness evidence examination: Jan 21, 2012
Trial concluded: Feb 13, 2013
Accused convicted: Feb 16, 2013
Death penalty: Feb 23, 2013
Numbers tell the story
Witnesses (on behalf of prosecution): 27
Documents produced: 30 (include photos, post-mortem report, medical test report and 11 material objects)