Rajasthan: 19-year-old boy gets death sentence for raping infant under new law

This is the first conviction in Rajasthan under the strict provisions of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018 — which awards death penalty to those convicted of raping girls under 12 years.

The Ordinance was brought in on April 21, in the wake of the outcry over the gangrape and murder of an eight-year-old Bakarwal girl in Kathua (J&K) and the alleged rape of a 17-year-old girl in Unnao (UP).

Rajasthan is the second state in the country to have brought such a law in force after Madhya Pradesh passed it in December.

The boy was convicted on Wednesday, within 70 days of the incident.

Special Judge Jagendra Kumar Agarwal, of the SC/ ST Court in Alwar, took 12 hearings over 22 days.

The Alwar incident dates back to May 9, when the seven-month-old girl’s father had, in a complaint to the police, accused the youth, Pintu, of raping the child. He said the baby had been left in the care of a blind relative. “When I returned home in the evening, only my relative was there …She told me that our neighbour, Pintu, had taken my daughter away half-an-hour ago, and hadn’t returned,” he said in the complaint. “The child was found crying in a football field, about a kilometre away from our home. Pintu had raped her and she was bleeding,” he said.

Pintu was caught within hours, and a case was lodged under IPC Sections 363 (kidnapping), 366A (procuration of minor girl) and relevant sections of the POCSO Act at Laxmangarh police station in Alwar. The child’s medical report confirmed rape, and the accused also confessed to his crime.

"This is the first such case in Rajasthan and the third in the country. In the first two cases, the accused was given a death sentence," public prosecutor Kuldeep Jain said.

The case was fast-tracked and "trial, in this case, was completed after 13 hearings," he said.