INDIA: TEACHER GETS DEATH FOR RAPE, MURDER OF STUDENT

disturbed by the recent spate in rape and murder of minors and determined to set a deterrent example, the Indian Supreme Court awarded the death penalty to a teacher, himself a father of three, for raping and murdering a 5th standard girl. The absence of an eye-witness or direct evidence did not deter a bench comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat and Mukundakam Sharma from sending Shivaji, aka Dadya Shankar Alhat, to the gallows, as it had no doubt about his guilt from circumstantial evidence. On January 14, 2002, Shivaji, a teacher in Pune, lured a maid’s daughter to a nearby hill on the pretext of collecting firewood for her. That was the last her sisters saw of the little girl. Her body was found lying on Manmodaya hill. Medical examination revealed rape, assault on her abdomen with a sharp-edged weapon and marks of strangulation with a rope on the neck. The accused, who fled his residence, was arrested two days after the incident from a nearby sugarcane field. The trial court found the evidence cogent and imposed death penalty. The Bombay High Court then confirmed the sentence.