NE NEWS SERVICE
GANDHINAGAR, DEC 1
A special court on Wednesday sentenced a man to life imprisonment for the rape and murder of a three-year-old girl in Gandhinagar district.
Special judge S N Solanki, hearing cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, sentenced Vijay Thakor to life in jail till his natural death, in a judgment delivered within a month of the crime committed on November 5.
The prosecution submitted that the case was “rarest of the rare”, as Thakor was also accused of raping a five-year-old and a 10-year-old girl in the same area of Santej village in the district, and all the three rapes were committed within 10 days during Diwali, assistant public prosecutor Sunil Pandya said.
The accused was sentenced to life imprisonment for kidnapping, raping and killing the three-year-old victim on the night of November 5.
The special court found Thakor guilty offences under sections 302 (murder), 363 and 366 (kidnapping), 376 (rape), 449 (house trespass), among other provisions.
An FIR was lodged at Santej police station, and the accused was arrested on November 7. The police filed a chargesheet within eight days of the arrest, and the fast-track court delivered its judgment in a little over two weeks of hearing, Pandya said.
The court took into account statements of dozens of witnesses, CCTV footage, forensic and medical reports, etc. as evidence while delivering its judgment, he said.
Thakor had on November 5 kidnapped the victim from the village and took her to an isolated place on his motorcycle, where he raped her. Scared of getting caught after the victim started crying, he strangled her to death.
According to the prosecution, the accused was addicted to pornographic videos.
“Thakor is also an accused in two rape cases of a five-year-old and a 10-year-old girl, both registered at Santej police station. In both the cases, the police have already filed a chargesheet, and a hearing will commence soon. He is also accused of three loot cases,” Pandya said.
