<![CDATA[Zakir Hussain, the prime accused in the gangrape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in Assam’s Nagaon district in March awarded death penalty by an Assam court Friday. District and Session Judge Rita Kar sentenced Hussain (19) to death under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for the murder, and to life imprisonment for raping the minor girl. On March 23, the minor girl was gagged, gangraped, doused in kerosene and set on fire, by her 12-year-old classmate, her 11-year-old cousin and 19-year-old neighbour, Zakir Husain. While Husain has been sentenced to death, the two juveniles were tried by the Juvenile Justice Board. Nagaon SP, Shankar Raimedhi, said that they have now been put in a correctional home for three years adding that the special investigation team formed for this particular case worked in tandem with the prosecution. That was why were able to bring justice in just 5 months. It is a record for the Assam Police. The brutality of the case ensured that it should be put on fast track court. The rape of the class 5 student created a huge uproar in Assam. After raping her turn by turn, and then setting her body on fire the youths had fled from the backdoor. She was rushed to Guwahati Medical College Hospital, where she succumbed to injuries later that night. At the time of filing the chargesheet in April, apart from the three, five more people were named. The five names included Husain’s parents, his brother, his brother-in-law and the person who was driving the car in which Husain fled from the scene of crime to another village. Husain’s family is infamous in the village for a number of petty crimes over the years. SP Raimedhi said that the other 5 were charged with criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence. However, they had been acquitted. The family is yet to receive monetary compensation but reportedly the District Services Legal Authority is going to help them under the Victim Compensation Scheme. The victim’s father said that all these days they hadn’t received any help whatsoever. They were very poor daily wage laborers. After this judgment, they were hopeful that they would get some help,.]]>
