Durg, 10 September

A special fast-track court for POCSO Act cases in Chhattisgarh's Durg district on Thursday awarded the death penalty to a 24-year-old man for the rape and murder of his six-year-old niece last year, holding the case to be among the "rarest of rare", police said.

District and Additional Sessions Judge Anish Dubey convicted the accused under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, and Section 103(1) (murder) and other relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), a police official said.

The court awarded the death penalty under Section 6(1) of the POCSO Act (aggravated sexual assault against a child) and for murder, besides imposing a fine of Rs 5,000 under each of the two sections, he said.

The accused, whose name was not disclosed to protect the victim's identity, was also sentenced to five years' rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 1,000 under Section 238(a) (disappearance of evidence) of the BNS.

The girl went missing on April 6, 2025, from Mohan Nagar police station area. She was found inside a vehicle and taken to hospital where doctors declared her dead, the police official said.

The post-mortem examination revealed that the girl had been sexually assaulted, he said.

Durg Police formed a Special Investigation Team to probe the incident.

As per the police, the child had gone to her grandmother's house in the neighbourhood for a function when her 24-year-old uncle sexually assaulted and killed her, and later placed the body in a neighbour's car.