R'than court sentences man to death for raping, killing minor girl

A court in Rajasthan's Alwar district Wednesday awarded death penalty to a man for raping and killing a five-year-old girl in 2015 by smashing her face with a stone and mutilating her private parts, terming the crime "rarest of rare".

Special judge of POCSO court, Ajay Kumar Sharma, convicted the accused, Rajkumar alias Dharmendra Yadav, a resident of Rewali in Behror town, for raping and brutally killing the minor girl, special public prosecutor Vinod Kumar Sharma told PTI.

The court convicted Rajkumar under section 302 (murder) and 363 (kidnapping) and also sentenced him to imprisonment till last breath under section 376 (rape), he said.

The court termed the case a "rarest of rare" crime that deserved maximum punishment, he added.

In February 2015, Rajkumar had lured the girl to an abandoned building on the pretext of for giving her a candy and raped her, Sharma said.

He then smashed her face with a heavy stone and cut her private parts using a sharp-edged tool. A case was registered against Rajkumar at Behror police station, he said.