A court in Gujarat’s Bharuch district on Thursday sentenced a 24-year-old youth to death for raping and murdering a four-year-old boy.

Judge S. Dave found Shambhu Padhiyar of Pilundra village guilty under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

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In April 2016, Padhiyar lured the boy away with an ice cream. He then took him near a village pond where he sexually assaulted and then brutally murdered the boy.

When the boy did not return home, his family and neighbours began searching for him and found his mutilated body near the pond.

The postmortem report revealed that the boy had been sexually assaulted multiple times.