Bhubaneswar, Oct 19 (IANS): In a landmark judgment, the special POCSO court, Sundargarh district in Odisha on Thursday awarded death sentence to a 47-year-old person for rape and murder of a four-year-old girl.

The convict has been identified as Sanjeeb Kerketta of Sundargarh town.

Sundargarh Special POCSO Court judge Mahendra Kumar Sutradhar convicted Kerketta under sections 450,366,376(2) (i), 376(A), 302, 201, of IPC and section 6 of POCSO Act.

Kerketta has also been directed to deposit Rs 39,000 as fine.

Sources said that the victim was sleeping in her house when the accused kidnapped her on October 21, 2016. The victim’s mother chased the accused for some distance but failed to rescue her daughter.

She later lodged a missing report at the Sundargarh town police station the next day. The body of the victim was recovered from an abandoned house nearby her house on October 24, 2016.

The police later found that Kerketta strangled the victim to death after raping her in the abandoned house. Police arrested Kerketta from his hideout October 27, 2017.

“Police had earlier recovered the wallet and ID card of the Kerketta near the victim’s body. Police during investigation also ascertained that the accused had criminal antecedent. The court after examining the statements of as many as 35 witnesses and other evidences awarded the convict the death sentence,” Special Public Prosecutor, Debasish Mishra said.