A trial Court in Shimla on Friday sentenced the 28-year-old lone accused to life imprisonment in the rape and murder of a 16-year-old minor girl in the forest of Halaila, Kotkhai of Shimla district in 2017.
The District and Sessions Judge, Shimla, Rajiv Bharadwaj, who is the special judge of the CBI court, while pronouncing the quantum of punishment in the case, found accused Anil alias Neelu guilty of rape and murder of a minor girl and convicted him under sections 376 (2)(i), 376 (A), and 302 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 4 of the POCSO Act.
As per CBI's advocate Amit Jindal, the Court also imposed a penalty of Rs 10,000 on convict Anil apart from life imprisonment till death.
"He has been given the life imprisonment till death. I will not be speaking much on it," the advocate said.
CBI had registered a case on July 22, 2017, on the orders of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh and took over the investigation of the case.
The investigation agency had arrested the accused Neelu on April 13, 2018, and a charge sheet was filed in May 2018.
The Sessions Court found the accused guilty and convicted him on April 28, after witnessing 59 witnesses.
Earlier, six people were arrested by the local police in the case. However, "after a thorough investigation, CBI filed a charge sheet in the court of Special Judge (POCSO), Shimla against accused Anil Kumar. The role of others 6 arrested by the state police was not allegedly found," CBI said.
The brutal rape and murder of a schoolgirl in Shimla's Kotkhai triggered outrage across Himachal Pradesh in July 2017.
The 16-year-old victim was returning back from school when she went missing on July 4. Two days later, police recovered her body from the Halaila forests of Kotkhai.
( With inputs from ANI )
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