INDIA: TRANSGENDER SENTENCED TO DEATH IN 2021 RAPE, MURDER OF INFANT IN MUMBAI

March 7, 2024:

A special court in Mumbai has sentenced a transgender person to death after finding them guilty of abducting, raping and murdering a three-month-old girlchild, India Today reported on February 28, 2024.
The crime had taken place following a quarrel over some gifts demanded by the accused in 2021.
The order in the case is yet to be made available, but the accused was convicted of kidnapping, murder, rape, causing disappearance of evidence, and also under various sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Under a section of the POCSO, Chougule was sentenced to life imprisonment.
For the offences of rape and murder, Chougule was sentenced to death, to be "hanged by the neck till dead," specified Judge AU Kadam.
Chougule has been in custody since July 9, 2021.
This period shall be taken into account for the purpose of Section 433(A) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), directed Judge Kadam.
As per Section 433A of the CrPC, a person serving a life sentence for an offence that also carries the death penalty, or where a death sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment, the person isn't eligible for release from jail unless they've completed a minimum of fourteen years of imprisonment.
The body of the minor victim was found buried in a creek in south Mumbai's Cuffe Parade area in July 2021. The baby was abducted by the accused at around 2:30 am and was buried in mud in a nearby creek.