INDIA: 3 YOUTHS SENTENCED TO DEATH IN HARYANA FOR GANGRAPE, MURDER OF 9-YEAR-OLD

January 19, 2017: Three youths were sentenced to death by a fast-track court in Haryana for the gang rape and killing of a nine-year-old girl in Ateli town of Mahendergarh district more than two years ago. Narnaul’s additional sessions judge, RK Dogra, awarded the punishment to the three accused, Deepak, Rajesh and Arun, after finding the crime rarest of rare. According to a lawyer of the victim’s family, Karam Singh Yadav, all the accused are in the age group of 20-30 years from middle and lower middle-class families. Yadav said the fourth accused, Sanjay, a railway engineer, was acquitted, getting benefit of the doubt. The incident took place on October 31, 2014, when the girl, student of a primary school, had gone to leave a rat in the nearby area. She was the only daughter of a poor widow. According to the prosecution, the accused, under the influence of alcohol, kidnapped the girl and took her to a house where they gang-raped her. Next day, her body was recovered from near Arun’s house. Later, people agitated, demanding the arrest of the accused, fearing that they would be shielded by a politician. Locals, led by former MLA Naresh Yadav, had also given a call for a bandh in the town. “Amid increasing pressure, the police arrested the accused after a worker of a liquor shop told them that he had seen the accused following the girl,” says Subhash Yadav, a lawyer, who also helped the victim’s family. According to Yadav, due to people’s consistent efforts, police had to file a revised challan against the accused with additional proof, including forensic report.
“The accused had even confessed to the crime before the media which also helped the prosecution apart from the narco test report of one of the accused,” he said.
Yadavs fought the legal battle for the girl’s family for free after social activists approached them. (Sources: indianexpress.com, 20/01/2017)