INDIA: DEATH PENALTY FOR RAPE, MURDER OF 75-YR-OLD WOMAN

March 13, 2012: Observing that it was a "rarest of the rare case", a court in Haryana awarded death sentence to a 22-year-old youth holding him guilty of raping and brutally killing a 75-year-old woman.   Neelima Shangla, Additional Sessions Judge, Sirsa, awarded death penalty to Nikka Singh under Section 302 (murder) of IPC, 13 months after the crime.   Singh was held guilty of raping a 75-year-old woman and later murdering her by gagging her mouth with a shawl and by strangulating her neck with her salwar on February 11, 2011.
The woman hailing from village Sanwat Khera, Sirsa was going for a walk near her house in the afternoon. When she did not return for long, her family members went in search of her and found her body lying in the mustard fields.
A case was registered by police and it was later established that Singh "due to his perverse lust of sex" had committed the crime. An ear ring and a pair of spectacles were later recovered by police from the spot of murder.
(Sources: PTI, 13/03/2012)