A court in Uttar Pradesh on Friday awarded death penalty to a couple accused of heinous crimes, including sexual offences, against 33 children..In a press release, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said that a special judge under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act) in Uttar Pradesh's Banda sentenced Rambhawan, a former junior engineer with the Irrigation Department, and his wife Durgawati to death for various offences under Indian Penal Code (IPC) and POCSO Act.They were accused of committed unnatural offences, aggravated penetrative sexual offences, using children for pornographic purposes, storage of pornographic material involving children, abetment and criminal conspiracy."The Ld. Trial Court also ordered for award of compensation of Rs. 10 Lakh to each victim by the Government. The Court further ordered to distribute the cash amount seized from the house of the accused persons among the victims in equal proportion," the CBI said..According to the case registered by the CBI in 2020, the accused committed various crimes including aggravated penetrative sexual assaults against 33 male children, some of them as young as three years."Investigation also revealed that some of the victims had suffered injuries on their private parts during penetrative sexual assault. Some of them have remained admitted in the hospital. Few of the victims developed Squint Eye. Victims are still suffering from psychological trauma caused by the predators," the CBI said..The accused remained active in the area of Banda and Chitrakoot in Uttar Pradesh between Year 2010 to 2020, as per the CBI. They used to apply different forms of modus operandi on children including enabling access to online video-games or giving money or gifts to allure them, the agency said.A chargesheet was filed against Rambhawan and Durgawati in February 2021. Charges were framed in May 2023..While awarding the death penalty, the trial court found the criminal acts of accused as “rarest of rare” on the basis of unparalleled depravity and systemic nature of their crimes, the CBI said."The sheer scale of this victimization across multiple districts, combined with the extreme moral turpitude of the convicts, marks this as a crime of such an exceptional and heinous nature that it leaves no room for reformation, necessitating the ultimate judicial deterrent to meet the ends of justice," the agency said..Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.
