Aluva rape-murder: Kerala court grants death penalty to convict

Kerala’s Kochi court on Tuesday has sentenced a man to death who was convicted in the horrific Aluva child rape and murder case.
Special POCSO court judge K Soman gave the highest punishment of the land to Ashwaq Alam, a migrant labourer, for raping and killing a 5-year-old girl from Bihar.
The victim’s parents were also present in court when the punishment was given to Alam, who was convicted on November 4.
The prosecution argued that the case falls under the rarest-of-rare category and therefore, the death penalty should be given to the convict.
Furthermore, during arguments on sentence, the prosecution stated, Alam claimed in court that the other accused were let go and only he was caught in the case and, beyond that, he didn’t make any other submission.
The court found Alam guilty of all 16 offences in the charge sheet.
Earlier, the prosecution said that out of the 16, 5 offences are punishable by death.
The minor girl was brutally raped and strangulated to death on July 28 after she was abducted from her rented house here. The body of the girl was found dumped in a stack in a marshy area behind a local market in nearby Aluva and the accused was arrested based on CCTV visuals.
The sentence has been pronounced on a date celebrated as Children’s Day across the country.
It also marks the date as the 11th anniversary of the POCSO Act, which came into effect on November 14, 2012.