Chhattisgarh: 5 men sentenced to death for gang-raping, killing minor girl, murdering her two relatives

Raipur: A fast-track court in Korba district in Chhattisgarh has sentenced 5 men to death for gang-raping and killing a minor girl and also murdering two of her relatives in 2021.

The Fast-Track Special Court (FTSC) has also sentenced another accused to life imprisonment.

Additional sessions judge Mamta Bhojwani sentenced Santaram Majhwar (49), Abdul Jabbar (34), Anil Sarthi (24), Pardeshi Ram (29), and Anand Panika (29) to death after convicting them in the case, special public prosecutor Sunil Mishra said on Wednesday.

Another accused Umashankar Yadav (24) was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Delivering judgement in the case, the court observed that this inhuman and cruel act of the accused is extremely perverted, heinous, brutal and cowardly, because they have killed three innocent and weak people to satisfy their lust. This has shocked the collective conscience of the entire society.

The case relates to gangrape and brutal killing of a 16-year-old girl belonging to Pahadi Korwa, listed as the particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG), by the accused near Gadhuproda village under Lemru police station in Korba district on January 29, 2021.

The accused gang-raped and then killed the girl by bludgeoning her head with stone before dumping in the forest.

They also murdered the girl’s father (60) and his four-year-old granddaughter who were accompanying her.

According to the special public prosecutor in the case, the police probe had found that the main accused Manjhwar, who had employed the victim’s family as his cattle gazer, was putting pressure on her father to make her his second wife.

The main accused committed the heinous crime along with his five associates when the girl and her family had spurned his proposal.