A 24-year-old man has been awarded death sentence by a court in Chhattisgarh’s Durg district for raping and murdering a five-year-old deaf and mute girl in 2015.

Special Judge, POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act), Shubhra Pachouri, pronounced Ram Sona, guilty on Friday and sentenced him to death, Durg’s Additional Public Prosecutor Kamal Kishore Verma told PTI.

The court also awarded five years’ imprisonment each to his mother Kunti Sona (42) and friend Amrit Singh (23) for concealing evidence of the offense.

The convict, a resident of Khursipar locality in Durg, had raped the speech and hearing-impaired girl, residing in the same area, on February 25, 2015, and then smothered her to death, Verma said.

Later, his mother and friend helped him to pack the body in a plastic bag and dumped it at a secluded place in the district, located around 45 km from here, he said.

During the course of the investigation into the case, Ram Sona’s mother admitted to the crime and the three were subsequently arrested, he said.

This is the first case in which the Durg district court has handed death sentence to a rape accused, the prosecutor claimed.

Chhattisgarh Durg POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) Shubhra Pachouri Kamal Kishore Verma