Thursday, December 20, 2018

Man gets death for sodomy, murder (Maharashtra)

Vishwas Kothari
TNN | Sep 23, 2016, 06.33 AM IST

PUNE: A special court in Khed-Rajgurungar, about 45km from the city, handed out a death sentence to a man on Thursday for sodomising and murdering an eight-year-old boy at Chakan in rural Pune in 2013. The convict, Khalaksinh Janaksinh Panchal, a native of Hamirpur in Uttar Pradesh, was living in Bapdeo Wasti, Kadachiwadi in Khed taluka at the time of the incident. He was working as a casual labourer at a construction site for a school building in Kadachewadi. Additional public prosecutor Girish Kobal told TOI, "Investigation revealed that Panchal was wanted in another offence of sexual assault on a minor girl at Narhe in 2011. A trial in this is going on before sessions court in Pune." The capital punishment pronounced on Thursday is the second such sentencing by a sessions court in Pune district. 

On August 31, a city sessions court had awarded death sentence to a man for killing his mother, wife and daughter over an extramarital affair. Special judge S R Jagtap of Khed-Rajgurunagar sentenced Panchal to be hanged till death for the offence of murder under Section 302 of IPC. The court further sentenced him to life imprisonment for each of the offences of unnatural crime under Section 377 of IPC and aggravated penetrative sexual assault under Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. He was also sentenced to seven years imprisonment for the offence of aggravated sexual assault under Section 10 of POCSO Act. The court also imposed Rs 9,000 fine on the convict. Of this, Rs 5,000 is to be given as compensation to the victim's father. The death sentence is subject to confirmation by the Bombay high court. 

According to a complaint by the boy's father, their house is located on the road leading to the construction site. Panchal would often pass through this road and played with children, including the victim and his two brothers. He would often offer them chocolates. On the evening of May 15, 2013, Panchal told the victim's father that he was taking the boy to a nearby place to give him chocolates. However, the boy did not return home till late that night, prompting his parents and villagers to lodge a report with the Chakan police. Kobal said, "Considering the boy was last seen with Panchal, the parents and the villagers had named him as a suspect.Panchal was arrested from Pune railway station in the wee hours of May 16 while he was preparing to board a train to his native in Uttar Pradesh." "The same morning, the victim's body was found lying in a farm located close to the under-construction school site where Panchal was living on the first floor," he said. Investigation revealed that Panchal had taken the boy to the site and sexually assaulted him.

Later, he throttled the boy and threw his body from the first floor of the building to the nearby farm.Kobal said, "Medical examination of the victim and the accused proved critical in establishing the offence. Injury and abrasion marks were found on the private parts of the victim as well as the accused and the latter could not provide any explanation for the abrasion marks. Evidence provided by doctors who conducted these examinations further fortified the prosecution's case." A total of 10 witnesses were examined by the prosecution. Panchal himself had led the police to the scene of crime during investigation, Kobal said. At the point of sentence, the prosecutor described the case as the rarest of rare crime deserving the capital punishment considering the involvement of the accused in a similar sexual offence on a minor in the past and his conduct after commission of the sexual assault and murder.

Source:https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/Man-gets-death-for-sodomy-murder/articleshowprint/54473848.cms (Accessed 20 December 2018)

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