INDORE: The Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh high court on Thursday upheld death sentence in the rape and murder of a four-year-old child in Dhar on December 15, 2017.A division bench of Justice P K Jaiswal and Justice S K Awasthi ruled that the crime fell under the rarest of rare category and that the prosecution had been able to prove beyond a shadow of doubt that the offence was committed by 19-year-old convict Karan Fatiya Karan was sentenced to death by a lower court in May and had appealed in high court. The prosecution, while arguing for confirmation of capital punishment, said that medical and DNA evidence and the fact that he was last seen with the victim tied the convict to the crime.The defence claimed that DNA profile of the accused did not match with the samples found on the victim’s body. However, the court dismissed the allegations and upheld the death sentence for Karan.On December 15, 2017, the four-year-old went missing while playing with her friends outside her house in Dhar district . Her parents filed a missing person’s complaint but the child’s mutilated and nude body was found the next morning a few metres from her house. She had been bludgeoned to death with a stone.Police questioned those who were in the vicinity when she went missing and zeroed in on Karan because his statements were inconsistent, say sources. Under interrogation, he broke down and admitted to raping and killing the child. He said he had abducted her the previous evening and taken her to a deserted area where he committed the crime.Trial was fast-tracked and he was held guilty and sentenced to death on May 17, 2018. This is the third death penalty to upheld by high court this year. The two other death sentences were ratified by the Gwalior bench and principal bench. Fifteen death sentences have been awarded this year in the state in cases of rape and murder of minors.

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