Madhya Pradesh: Man Sentenced To Death For Rape And Murder Of Three-Month-Old In A Record 22 Days

A special court in Indore has sentenced a man, accused of rape and murder of a three-month-old girl on 20 April, to death after a 22-day trial, Times of India reports.

The accused had abducted the girl on the intervening night of 19 and 20 April while she was sleeping with her parents on the street outside the Rajwada Fort in Indore. The man, a distant relative, took the infant to the basement of a building 50 metres away and raped her. He smothered her as she began crying.

CCTV footage of the area, in which the accused was seen carrying the girl away, helped the police crack the case without delay. The accused, identified as Naveen Gadke, was arrested after a shopkeeper spotted the infant's body.

“The accused had an argument with victim's mother after which he committed the crime", said Deputy Inspector-General of Police H C Mishra.

Treating the case as ‘rarest of the rare’, the court convicted Gadke of rape and handed him a death sentence under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. High Court’s approval is required before the execution of the sentence.

“The Supreme Court had also ruled in a case of forceful and brutal rape and murder of a nine-year-old that such an offence is a crime against the society and considered death penalty fit for such a criminal,” the court’s order read.