A district court in Haryana on Wednesday awarded capital punishment to two convicts for the rape and murder of a 3.5-year-old girl in a Fatehabad village last year, officials said. Pronouncing the judgment, Additional District and Sessions Judge Amit Garg of the court — which concluded the trial within a year — termed the June 2024 case “rarest of the rare”, and imposed a penalty of Rs 1.25 lakh on each of the two convicts — Mukesh Kumar, a farm labourer from Fatehabad district, and his relative Satish Kumar. Fatehabad District Attorney Devender Mittal said the victim’s father, a farm labourer, lived in an accommodation in the agricultural field where he worked. Mukesh and the minor girl’s father worked in neighbouring agricultural fields in the past, which had brought them close. On June 29 last year, the two accused and the victim’s father were partying in the latter’s residence when the incident took place, the prosecution said. The father and others in the family had fallen asleep, while the accused continued drinking alcohol until late night. The duo — Mukesh and Satish — then took away the minor girl, who was sleeping next to her mother, to the field and the former raped her, while Satish helped him in the crime. Later, they left the unconscious 3.5-year-old girl in the field, near a link road, and escaped. At around 3:30 am, the father noticed that the minor girl had gone missing. They immediately started searching for the girl, and found her injured in the field nearly an hour later. The girl was admitted to the Tohana government hospital, the prosecution said. Based on a complaint filed by the victim’s family, an FIR was registered against the accused under rape charges. Murder charges were slapped against the duo after the minor girl died during treatment on July 8 last year. During the trial, 10 doctors were among the 38 witnesses who deposed before the court for the prosecution.
