INDIA: DEATH SENTENCE FOR RAPE AND MURDER OF TEENAGED GIRL

the Mahila court in Coimbatore, India, awarded the death sentence to a daily wage worker for kidnapping, raping and murdering a teenaged girl three years ago. The prosecution alleged that a person identified as Murthy kidnapped a 13-year old girl and raped and murdered her in January 2005, at Kovilpalayam. The body was later recovered from a well. Though the Mahila Court acquitted Murthy on April 26, 2006, the Madras High Court ordered it to re-hear the case. Judge Dakshinamurthy sentenced him to death by hanging under IPC section 302 (punishment for murder), and 10 years each for kidnap and rape.