Noida, Sep 23 (PTI) A man convicted of raping and killing a 14-year-old girl in Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh was awarded death sentence by a local POCSO court on Thursday, police said.

The accused, aged around 35, had stormed into the house of the girl on the night of April 14 when she was with her maternal grandmother, the officials said.

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“Accused Monu Thakur raped the girl and later set her on fire, eventually leading to her death in a hospital due to the injuries afflicted on her,” a Hathras Police spokesperson said.

An FIR was lodged in the case on April 15 on the basis of a complaint by the girl's father under Indian Penal Code sections 354 (assault with intent to outrage woman's modesty), 326 (causing grevious injuries), 452 (house trespassing), 302 (murder) and 376 (rape), the official said.

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He was also booked under relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the case chargesheeted in the court in 42 days, the spokesperson said.

“It was a heinous case of rape, murder of a child in which SP Vineet Jaiswal had instructed officials to conduct the investigation in a time-bound manner and carefully produce the evidence and witnessed in court,” the official said.

“Public prosecutor Rajpal Diswar had argued the case for the victim and POCSO court judge Pratibha Saxena on Thursday awarded death sentence to the accused. The judge also slapped a penalty of Rs 1.68 lakh on the accused,” the official added. PTI KIS

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)