Jamshedpur youth convicted for raping, killing cousin

POCSO Court to pronounce punishment on March 31

Mail News Service

Jamshedpur, March 28: The Special POCSO Court of Additional District and Sessions Judge (V) Sanjay Kumar Upadhyaya convicted one Vikram Das for raping and killing his cousin. It will pronounce its judgment on the quantum of punishment on 31^st March.

The incident dates back to 4^th April 2018 when Vikram had allegedly raped his maternal uncle’s daughter at an abandoned quarter in their neighbourhood in Das Basti locality of Burmamines. The quarter was lying vacant for two months. Vikram would often take his cousin Naina to the quarter and molest her. On the day of the incident, he had taken her to the quarter with evil intentions. When he raped her, the girl shouted for help. In a bid to silence her, he stabbed her with a knife several times, as a result of which the victim died at the scene. Later, the accused hid the victim’s body in the nearby bushes and fled the scene. After the incident, Vikram, joined Naina’s family members in her search and went to several places in the locality to look for her. When Naina’s body was recovered, Vikram also sat near it and cried with the family members.

Police however cracked the mystery behind the rape and murder by taking Vikram into detention on the basis of suspicion soon after the case came to the fore. But local residents opposed police action and also gheraoed the police station to build pressure on police. Police had recovered the knife from the bushes near Naina’s body and arrested Vikram. The then SSP of East Singhbhum Anoop Birtharay had investigated this case and ordered deployment of police force outside the house of the deceased.