HC uphelds death for man for rape, murder

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has upheld the death sentence awarded to a man for rape and murder of a six-year-old girl in Shravasti district of Uttar Pradesh in 2012, observing that leniency in such cases will send a wrong message to the society.
A division bench of Justices Surendra Vikram Singh Rathore and Pratyush Kumar delivered the judgement yesterday dismissing the appeal of convict Chhotkau and answering the reference sent by the sessions court for confirming the death penalty.
On March 29, 2014 Sessions Judge, Shravasti, had awarded death sentence to the convict and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on him for murder. He was also sentenced to life imprisonment and a fine of another Rs 50,000 imposed on him for rape.

Chhotkau had filed the appeal challenging the order of the sessions court.
"In such cases, leniency by the court will send a wrong message to the society. Such type of cases deserve exemplary punishment so that persons of deviant behaviour may choose not to do so.
"We are of the view that this case is rarest of the rare. When by his deviant behaviour and abnormal sexual urge, the culprit has forfeited his right to be alive in the society, we think death sentence is the only punishment which can be warded to him," the High Court observed.
On March 8, 2012, the victim's uncle had reported to police station Ikauna that his niece aged about 6 years was taken by Chhotkau. The girl's body was later found from the sugarcane fields in Shravasti.

The FIR in this case was registered against Chhotkau under sections 302 (murder) and 376 (rape) of IPC.