In a unique and unprecedented decision in Maharashtra, a sessions court on Monday sentenced a man to three death sentences for the kidnapping, rape, and killing of a five-year-old in Kalmeshwar, 20 km outside of Nagpur. On December 7, 2019, a crime occurred that shocked the public and led to calls for expedited justice. As part of his evil scheme, the prisoner gagged the girl by forcing a T-shirt down her throat with a stick, and then he sexually assaulted her and broke her skull with a boulder.
Sanjay Puri was found guilty on charges of kidnapping, murder, rape of a child, and rape by a person of trust or authority under the Indian Penal Code and the applicable provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act by Additional Sessions Judge SR Padwal.
When the girl was abducted, a convict was spotted close to her home.
Puri was given two death sentences under the POCSO Act’s Section 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault) and Section 376 (AB) (rape of child). Puri was also fined $15,000 for her murder conviction.
