In a landmark ruling, District Judge and Additional Sessions Judge S R Padwal has issued a triple death penalty in the harrowing case of the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl reported in Linga village of Kalmeshwar tehsil in 2019. Sanjay Devpuri Puri (32), the convict, faced full force of the law as Judge Padwal found him guilty under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Special Public Prosecutor Prashant Kumar Sathianathan revealed the severity of the verdict and stated that Puri was convicted under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and was sentenced to death, accompanied by a fine of Rs 15,000. Additionally, Puri received death penalties under Section 376(A)(B) of the IPC and Section 6 of the POCSO Act.

 

The gravity of Puri’s crimes warranted further punishment as the court handed down rigorous imprisonment under Section 363 of the IPC and life imprisonment under Section 376(2) of the IPC. Furthermore, he was slapped with life imprisonment under Section 4 of the POCSO Act and an additional seven years of imprisonment under Section 10 of the POCSO Act. All sentences were to run concurrently to ensure that Puri would face the full consequences of his actions, said Sathianathan. The body of the girl child with a serious head injury was found in the agriculture farm where she lived with her parents on December 6, 2019. Puri had raped the girl and later smashed her head with a stone to kill the her. Parents of the girl live on the one side of the agriculture farm while her grandmother on the other side, with a small path connecting both the houses. Her parents work as farm labourers and Puri too was working there.

 

When the girl went missing, the parents assumed that she might have gone to her grandmothers. However, they lodged a missing person complaint on the next day after realising that she was not traceable. The police had launched searches and recovered her dead body from the farm. A piece of cloth and a rod were found stuffed in her mouth. The cops also recovered a boulder with blood stains. Police arrested Puri living in the farm and working as watchman. During the trial, the court examined 26 witnesses and held the accused guilty. SPP Prashant Kumar Sathianathan represented the State while Adv S M Kazi and Hemant Jha appeared for the accused. ASI Surendra Singh Thakur was ‘Pairavi’ Officer from Nagpur (Rural) Police.