India sentences another rapist to death

Aug. 19, 2004 at 4:16 AM

AHMEDABAD, India, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- A court in India's Gujarat state handed down the death penalty Wednesday to a youth for brutally raping and killing a six-year-old girl.

The sentence came days after Dhananjoy Chatterjee was hanged for the killing and rape of a schoolgirl, sentenced by the same Ahmedabad court. It was the sixth death penalty ever passed by the court.

Kishan Marwari reportedly lured six-year-old Gomi, a distant relative, out with the promise of sweets on Feb. 27 last year. He took her to a secluded field, where he is believed to have bashed her head on a stone, killing her, and then raped the dead girl. He also cut both her legs apparently to take the silver anklets she was wearing.

The court pronounced 20-year-old Kishen guilty after examining 14 witnesses, a knife bearing his fingerprints and other biological evidence.

Terming the crime a "rarest of the rare" case, Judge Z.K. Sayyed sentenced the accused to death by hanging.

Kishen was relatively calm after the pronouncement.

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