Gandhinagar, Dec 17 (IANS): A special court in Surat on Thursday awarded death sentence to a 24-year-old man convicted for the rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl in the Pandesara area in 2020 under the Protection of Children for Sexual Offenses (POSCO) Act.

Earlier, the Surat city police had filed the chargesheet in a record time of 13 days, following which the court ordered, Dinesh Dashrath Besane, the convict, to pay Rs 15 lakh as compensation to the victim's family.

Besane had lured the minor girl by tempting her with a 'vada pav' while she was playing near her house on December 7, 2020, and raped her in a deserted location.

After that, Besane killed the child by hitting her with a brick several times and fled the spot. The post-mortem report showed about 47 injury marks on her body.

This is the second death sentence handed down by a Surat court under the POSCO Act in the last 10 days. On December 7, a 35-year-old man was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a 2-year-old girl.