Chattisgarh: 5 men sentenced to death penalty for rape-murder of 16-year-old

On Wednesday, Five men were given death sentences by a fast-track court in Chhattisgarh’s Korba district for gangraping and killing a 16-year-old girl in 2021 and killing her two family members. According to the court, the perpetrators raped the minor girl, killed her, and her two family members.  Therefore, the only alternative available to this court is to decide to exempt the death penalty from the general rule of life in prison. Another perpetrator in the case was given a life sentence by the Fast Track Special Court (FTSC).

Who were the accused

According to special public prosecutor Sunil Kumar Mishra, additional sessions judge Mamta Bhojwani found Santram Majhwar (49), Abdul Jabbar (34), Anil Kumar Sarthi (24), Pardeshi Ram (39) and Anand Ram Panika (29), guilty of murder under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), as well as other sections of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act, and other provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). And Umshanakar Yadav, age 26, was the one who received a life sentence.

The victims were people of the Pahadi Korwa tribe, which is a particularly vulnerable tribe.