Our Correspondent
Jaipur, July 21
In 22 days of hearing of a case under the amended POCSO Act, an SC/ST court in Alwar on Saturday awarded capital punishment to 19-year-old boy for raping an infant girl.
This is the first death sentence given by a court in Rajasthan after the passage of sexual abuse law by the state assembly in March that allows death penalty for rape of a minor under 12 years.
Rajasthan became second state in the country to bring in such a law after Madhya Pradesh passed it in December, Additional Director General of Police (Jaipur range) Hemant Priyadarshi told a press conference here. "This is the first such case in Rajasthan and the third in the country. In the first two cases, the accused were given death sentence," the ADG said.
In his order, Special Judge Jagendra Kumar Agarwal pronounced the judgment sentencing Pintu, son of Sohanlal Dakot, to death for raping seven-month-old girl. Justice Agarwal took 2 hearings to decide the case in 22 days.
The Alwar rape incident occurred on May 9 at Harsana village under Laxmangarh police station, when a relative was babysitting the child when the accused took her away. The baby was sleeping with her grandmother who was blind. When the parents came looking for the infant, they were told by the relative that a neighbour had taken her away. She was later found crying in a football field, about a km from their home in Laxmangarh. The infant girl was then admitted to Alwar hospital for 20 days and medical examination confirmed rape. The accused was arrested later. A case was registered under sections of IPC and POCSO Act on June 6, 2018.