A special POCSO court in Araria, Bihar completed the trial in a rape case involving a six-year-old in 4 days and awarded the death penalty to accused Mohammad Major (48) on Thursday. Besides handing over the death sentence to the convict for rape, the Araria POCSO Court special judge Shashi Kant Rai also directed the District Legal Services Authority to pay compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the victim from the Victim Compensation Fund.
The entire process was completed within 56-days. The victim’s mother filed an FIR in the matter on December 2, 2021. A case was filed under provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, and POCSO Act against the accused. On January 12, 2022, the police presented the charge sheet to the court. The Bihar POCSO court took notice of this on January 20, 2022, and on January 24, 2022, it drafted accusations against the convict. Given the gravity of the act, the court issued its decision within 56 days after the incident.
Mohammad Mejar had raped the little girl brutally
The victim’s mother, in her complaint filed on December 2, said that her daughter was playing near their house on December 1 when she suddenly went missing. She added that around 10 pm her daughter returned home and narrated her ordeal. She revealed how Mohammad Major has asked the girl for a container and some water when she was playing outside the house. When she approached Major with the same, he held her and dragged her into the field where he raped her brutally. Following the incident, the victim’s mother lodged an FIR in the women police station against the accused.
According to reports, Mohammad Major was trying to flee to Nepal when he was apprehended by the district police on December 13 last year.
“Following his arrest, district police proceeded for speedy trial in the court. The investigators have submitted vital evidence including swab and skin tissues reports in court. The court held him guilty of a crime under IPC sections of 376. It has also kept his past criminal record. He was considered a sexual predator of Araria,” said the Special public prosecutor of the case.
“The rape of the child by the man involves extreme brutality, which has always been regarded as an aggravated form of rape. The girl was subjected to inhuman acts of torture and cruelty for the sole motive to commit rape. The rape of the girl who was completely innocent clearly falls in the category of rarest of rare cases,” special judge Shashikant Rai of the Bihar POCSO Court observed in his judgement.
Meanwhile, Araria SP Ashok Kumar Singh said that the convict had kidnapped the minor girl, tortured and raped her. “We have ensured speedy trial in the case. The case was investigated and a charge sheet was submitted within 41 days on January 12,” said Singh.
The death penalty to the convict will send a strong message to the society and create a fear among the wrongdoers,” the SP added.
Shyamlal Yadav, a special public prosecutor for the POCSO, said it was likely the first time capital sentence has been granted for rape on a minor girl from a scheduled caste community.
It may be noted that the Araria POCSO Court has earlier, on two occasions set a national record by delivering rape case verdicts within 24 hours. On December 16, 2021, the Araria Pocso court had beaten its own record of conducting and concluding the trial and sentencing of a rape accused to life imprisonment the same day. The same court of special judge Shashi Kant Rai had earlier set a record of convicting a rape accused in single day proceedings on October 4, 2021.
