Cuttack: Cuttack Special POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) court Thursday awarded death penalty to rape convict Mohammed Mustafa in the sensational 2018 Salipur minor rape and attempt to murder case.
The court Wednesday convicted Mustafa for the heinous crime, but put off pronouncing the penalty. After going through the evidence and examining 23 witnesses, the court convicted the accused by awarding capital punishment. He shall be hanged till death, a court ordered.
It may be mentioned here that Mustafa had raped a six-year-old girl near a school at a village under Salipur police limits April 21, 2018 while she had gone to a nearby shop. In an attempt to eliminate the evidence, the accused had subsequently tried to strangulate the little girl and had left her to die. Several reports suggested that Mustafa had also crushed the face of the minor after raping her.
After a frantic search, locals along with the girl’s family members rescued the child in a critical condition with bleeding injuries on her head, face, chest and private parts from the school late that evening and admitted her to the local healthcare centre. She was later referred to the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack where she succumbed to her injuries after battling for nine days April 29 last year.
Agitated locals had staged impromptu road blockades and demanded strong action against the culprit after the incident following which the investigation was handed over to the Crime Branch of police. The Crime Branch had designated it as a ‘Red Flag’ case and later arrested accused Mustafa under sections 376, 307, I (M) of IPC and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012. Mustaq was booked under section 302 of the IPC after the girl died, Special Public Prosecutor A K Nayak told reporters.
A 500-page chargesheet was submitted in the case, in which 23 witnesses were examined, Nayak said.
This was the fourth death penalty awarded in less than two months in Odisha by POCSO courts.
A court in Jagatsinghpur September 10 sentenced a man to death for raping and killing a nine-year-old girl in a village last year, while on August 28, a 25-year-old man was awarded death penalty in Mayurbhanj district for raping and killing an eight-year-old tribal girl last year.
On July 26, a POCSO court in Angul sentenced a 20-year-old man to death for raping and killing a girl.