Life term for two in Lakhimpur Kheri minor Dalit sisters’ case

Nearly a year after two minor Dalit sisters were gang-raped and murdered, a POCSO court on Monday sentenced two of the convicts to life imprisonment and two others to six years in jail.
Additional District Judge (ADJ) Rahul Singh had convicted the four on various charges on Friday in connection with the killing of the two siblings whose bodies were found hanging from a tree in a sugarcane field near a village in Nighasan. On Monday, the judge sentenced Sunil and Zunaid to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs. 46,000 each, Special Public Prosecutor, POCSO cases, Brijesh Pandey told mediapersons.
The POCSO court had on Friday held Junaid and Sunil alias Chhotu guilty under IPC sections 363 (kidnapping), 376D (A) (gangrape of a woman under 16 years of age), 302 (murder) and 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) among others and relevant sections of the POCSO Act. The court sentenced the other two convicts namely Karimuddin and Arif to six years rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs. 5000 each on charges after holding them guilty under section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of IPC, Pandey said.