Bhubaneswar: A special POCSO court in Odisha on Friday awarded death sentence to a 22-year-old youth for brutally killing a 12-year-old girl after raping her in January.
The convict, Anam Dehury alias Srinibas, had allegedly raped the girl once more after murdering her by hitting her head with a stone. The incident took place at Kangula village in Angul district on January 19.
There were massive protests in Angul after the girl’s body was recovered beside a canal near the road on January 20. The autopsy had confirmed rape.
Angul additional district and sessions judge Suresh Chandra Pradhan, presiding over a special POCSO court, adjudged the crime as belonging to the rarest of rare cases and sentenced Dehury to capital punishment.
“The victim, who studied in Class 7, was waylaid by Dehury when she was going to give a lunch box to her father who ran a shop nearby. When she resisted Dehury’s advances, he lifted her into the bushes near the road. He raped her and killed her by crushing her head with a stone,” said public prosecutor Saroj Pattanayak.
Dehury, who lived in the same village as the victim, used to work as a plumber and had also worked outside Odisha, including Bengaluru. He had failed to complete his studies after Class 10. According to the police, he had been made sexual advances towards the girl for some time, but she had resisted his efforts.
Immediately after committing the crime, Dehury had fled to Kolkata. A team of investigators led by Angul police inspector Ramesh Bisoi found enough evidence pointing in his direction and arrested him in Kolkata three days later.
“Dehury not only confessed to his heinous crime, but also showed the site where he had thrown the girl’s flip-flops and the lunch box,” said Bisoi.
Angul Superintendent of Police Mitrabhanu Patnaik said it was a blind case for the police, but the use of forensic techniques managed to identify the accused.
“Advanced forensic technology helped us ascertain the culprit and gather irrefutable evidence. A charge-sheet was presented in court in a month and the case was put through the speedy trial mode. Hearing was completed in a record four months,” he said.
With the Angul District Bar Association having resolved not to represent the accused in trial, the government had appointed a lawyer from the state defence council.
“The crime was extremely heinous, and it had shaken the public conscience. The convict had first raped the girl, then killed her, then raped her once again,” said Mahendra Bastia, a local lawyer who assisted the special public prosecutor.
(With inputs from Bhikari Mohanty)
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