Death warrant issued for convict in rape-and-murder case

A court in Surat on Thursday issued death warrant for a 22-year-old man from Bihar, convicted for rape and murder of a three-year-old girl in the city in October 2018.

The warrant, issued by additional sessions judge P S Kala, fixed February 29 as the date for hanging Anil Yadav, the convict.

"Today the judge issued the death warrant. According to the warrant the convict has to be hanged till death at Sabarmati jail in Ahmedabad at 4.30 am on February 29, 2020," government pleader Nayan Sukhadwala said.

The court had sentenced Yadav to death under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act, which was upheld by the Gujarat High Court on December 27, 2019, he said.

Yadav has not yet approached the Supreme Court against the high court's order confirming his death sentence, the government pleader added.

A three-year-old girl went missing from her house in Godadara area of Surat city on October 14, 2018.

The police found her body a day later in a locked room on the ground floor of the building where she lived. Yadav, who lived in the room, was missing.

A migrant labourer from Bihar, he knew the victim and her family.

He was arrested from his village in Buxar district of Bihar five days after the body was discovered.