Palghar man sentenced to death for raping, killing girl; brutality shocked conscience, says court

A court in Maharashtra's Palghar district on Friday sentenced a man to death for sexually assaulting and hacking a nine-year-old girl to death in Dahanu taluka in 2021, stating that the extreme brutality and heinous nature of the crime shocked the conscience of the judiciary as well as society.

Additional Sessions Judge A R Rahane sentenced 51-year-old Pramul alias Praffula alias Pramod Ratna Ghoshe, a grocer, to death, and also imposed a fine of Rs 75,000 on him.

The court said a child who was supposed to spend her time in cheerfulness was instead dealt with animal passion by an acquaintance of her father's age.

Ghoshe was held guilty under Indian Penal Code sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 376(2)(j) (aggravated rape committed on a woman when she is incapable of giving consent), 376(2)(n) (committing rape repeatedly on the same woman), 376AB (committing rape on a female minor under twelve years of age), and 376-A (causing death or resulting in persistent vegetative state of victim during rape), and sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

He was also convicted for trying to kill an eyewitness.

Special public prosecutors Rekha N Hivrale and J N Suryavanshi said the incident occurred on September 27, 2021, in Ranshet Vangadpada village in Dahanu.

The victim, a Class IV student, was sent by her mother to buy groceries from a local shop. On her way to the shop, the accused lured the child to his house with a Rs 10 coin and sexually assaulted her.

When the injured child ran out shouting that she would tell her father, Ghoshe chased her with a 37-centimeter-long sharp sickle and repeatedly inflicted severe injuries upon her head, neck, face, and hands near a water tank.

An eyewitness passing by on a motorcycle, Vikas Barkya Bholada, tried to intervene. But Ghoshe attacked him with the sickle, inflicting wounds to his neck and back before fleeing. The minor girl succumbed to multiple severe injuries, including a slashed neck that severed her spinal cord, they said.

The court examined 24 prosecution witnesses in the case.

The guilt of the accused was established beyond reasonable doubt primarily through the direct testimony of the injured informant.

Additionally, Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) profiling established a mixed DNA match on the victim's vulval, cervical, and anal swabs that matched the DNA of both the victim and the accused.

The chain of evidence was further strengthened by the recovery of the murder weapon, a sickle, hidden in bushes behind a closed shop.

The court acquitted the accused under section 12 of the POCSO Act (sexual harassment via obscene media), as FSL analysis could not conclusively verify the exact timeframe the obscene media clips were accessed relative to the crime.

The judge said that the court, while appreciating evidence, should not lose sight of the realities of life or take an unrealistic approach by sitting in an ivory tower.

The judge noted a galloping tendency in recent times to acquit an accused easily, emphasising that society suffers equally from wrong acquittals as it does from wrong convictions.

Public servants must prima facie be presumed to act honestly and conscientiously, and their evidence should be assessed on its intrinsic worth rather than discarded merely because they are public servants interested in the success of the case, it said.

Talking about the case, the court noted that the 46-year-old accused formulated a "sinister design" to trap a nine-year-old innocent victim and resorted to a diabolical method by luring her with a Rs 10 coin before cruelly ravishing her.

"To satiate his sexual appetite and enormous perversity, the accused did not stop at vaginal intercourse but also committed anal intercourse with the minor victim, sickeningly raping her to fulfill his lust and cold-bloodedly murdering her when no one was around to protect her," it said.

"The rape caused a monstrous burial of the child's dignity in the darkness, and the appalling cruelty shown to her was extremely shocking, especially when considering the age difference between them," he said.

The court further reflected on the immense emotional distress and trauma the victim's family must have experienced, noting that a child who was supposed to spend her time in cheerfulness was instead dealt with animal passion by an acquaintance of her father's age.

"The victim could not have imagined in her wildest dreams that he harboured such sinister designs against her," the court said.

The judge highlighted that the accused committed a cold-blooded murder without any provocation, noting that while the victim's fragile frame would have collapsed from a single blow, the accused continued to literally chop her, causing as many as 20 injuries across various body parts.

"The extreme brutality and heinous nature of the crime shocked not only the judicial conscience but also that of the entire society, as such barbaric treatment of an innocent, helpless child assumes proportions of extreme depravity and revulsion in the mind of any stranger," it said.