Villagers protest over rape-murder of 5-year-old
Hundreds of villagers, primarily women, blocked the road connecting Falakata in Alipurduar district today to protest the alleged rape and murder of a five-year-old girl.
A youth in Kerala was sentenced to double life imprisonment in a 2020 case for sexually assaulting and killing a 17-year-old schoolgirl.
A Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court in Kochi, on Wednesday, handed the youth, Safar Shah, a double life term for raping and murdering a four-month pregnant Plus-Two student in 2020.
The court had earlier found Safar Shah guilty in the case.
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The accused was convicted of abduction of the girl from Kaloor and sexually assaulting her at a tea plantation in Valparai before murdering her.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 2.5 lakh on the convict.
The tragic incident occurred on January 7, 2020 when the victim, a four-month pregnant girl, was brutally murdered in Valapparai.
Safar Shah lured the girl away from her school in a vehicle by insisting that he had something to say about the girl withdrawing from the friendship and that he would take her back in the evening.
However, on the way, he attacked and killed her with a knife. The body of the deceased was dumped in a tea garden on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border. The police, later, found the body in her school uniform.
When the girl did not return from school, her parents lodged a complaint with the Kochi Central Police. In a statement to the police, her father said Safar Shah had threatened her by morphing her daughter’s pictures and harassed her.
Subsequently, the police arrested the accused during an investigation conducted in collaboration with the Tamil Nadu Police.
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