A POCSO (Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences) court in Kochi on Saturday convicted the lone accused in the sensational Aluva child rape and murder case. Special POCSO court judge K Soman convicted Ashwaq Alam, a migrant labourer, for raping and killing the 5-year-old girl from Bihar, reports PTI.
On July 28, the minor girl was brutally raped and strangulated to death after she was abducted from her rented house in Kochi. 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 footage.
The judge said that the accused was found guilty of all the 16 offences mentioned in the chargesheet. The quantum of the sentence will be pronounced on November 9.
The conviction came almost 100 days after the crime was committed.
Public prosecutor G Mohanraj, who met the media said the prosecution considers this case as a rarest of the rare incident and will seek maximum punishment of death penalty to the accused.
“The court has found the accused guilty of all the 16 offences in the chargesheet. Out of which five are punishable with death penalty,” Mohanraj told PTI.
The state government will file a report on reformation possibility of the accused while the jail authorities will have to file a report on his conduct inside the prison, Mohanraj added. The probation officer will file a report on the social status of the accused.
Addressing media outside the court, Ernakulam Rural police chief Vivek Kumar, who headed the investigation, said the chargesheet in the case was filed within 30 days, adding that it was one of the fastest trials in the entire country.