Mumbai court awards death penalty in 2019 rape-murder of 9-year-old girl, whose body was found in septic tank

A Mumbai court announced the death sentence for the accused who had kidnapped the girl in the Juhu area in April 2019 and raped her. Her body was recovered a few days later from a septic tank of a public toilet near her home.

New Delhi: A court in Maharashtra’s Mumbai awarded death penalty to a convict in the rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl in 2019. The Dindoshi court in Mumbai pronounced the death sentence for convict Gudappa Chinnatambi Devendra in the rape and murder case of the minor girl after she was kidnapped by him in the Juhu area in April 2019, ANI reported. Her body was recovered a few days later from a septic tank of a public toilet near her home. 

The prosecutor on Thursday had sought the death sentence for the accused for kidnapping, raping and murdering the nine-year-old child. 

Special Pocso judge had found Devendra guilty on Tuesday and had adjourned the hearing to Friday to announce the quantum of punishment. 

In another rape and muder case, a Mumbai court on Thursday awarded death penalty to a 45-year-old man. He was found guilty of the brutal rape and murder of a 34-year-old woman in Mumbai's Sakinaka area in September 2021. 

The accused Mohan Kathwaru Chauhan had been convicted under IPC sections 302 (murder), 376 (rape) as well as provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on May 30 by Additional sessions judge (Dindoshi) H C Shende. The prosecution had demanded capital punishment for Chouhan who had used an iron rod during the assault.

In the order, the court said the incident was inhuman and "brought dreadful shivers up the spine in thinking about it."

"To show leniency or mercy in the case of such heinous crime and to an accused who has shown no repentance or remorse after exhibiting an extremely depraved mentality would be a travesty of justice, " the court noted. 

(With agency inputs)