IMPHAL: A POCSO court on Tuesday awarded death penalty to a youth convicted of raping and murdering a four-year-old girl in Senapati district of Manipur . The crime was committed in December, 2015.Special judge POCSO (Senapati) A Noutuneshwari Devi, during the sentence hearing, sentenced 21-year-old convict R David to death for his crime. "Convict R David is sentenced to death and shall be hanged till death," announced the court.The judge said, "Considering the nature of the case, I believe this case should fall under the rarest of the rare category and there is no mitigating factor which would make me consider any alternative punishment. In my considered opinion, the maximum punishment should be awarded and it should be an eye-opener for the society at large in order to prevent such brutal and heinous crimes."The special public prosecutor said David had taken the victim out on the pretext of buying her food on the occasion of Christmas Day. Then he took her to a cattle shed where he raped and then murdered her. The incident took place between 6.30pm and 7pm.After taking up suo motto cognizance, police had arrested David on December 27, two days after the crime. Before the accused was arrested, the victim's body had been buried following a customary local law. It was later exhumed and post-mortem was conducted in the presence of an executive magistrate. The post-mortem revealed clear signs of strangulation and sexual assault was also detected.During the investigation, David had admitted to his crime and he was remanded in judicial custody from December 31, 2015.After the police submitted a chargesheet against him, David was tried in court and found guilty under section 376 of IPC, r/w Section 6 of POCSO Act, and Section 302 of IPC. Altogether 21 prosecution witnesses were examined during the trial. The court had established David's guilt and convicted him on Monday. Tuesday was fixed as the day of hearing of the sentence, after which the death penalty was awarded to him.The court also recommended that a compensation is paid to the family of the victim. The money should be paid as the National Legal Services Authority's 2018 compensation scheme for female victims and survivors of sexual assault or other crimes, the court said.

Stay updated with all the Latest Imphal headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.