Death sentence for child’s rapist

On December 17, 1999, Rathod, a watchman at Shanudeep Apartments in Adajan where Khushboo lived, took the girl to a secluded spot near Pal Jakatnaka, where he raped and then killed her with a sharp-edged weapon. The next day police found Khushboo’s mutilated body in a farm near Jakatnaka.

Khushboo was a student of Class IV. Her parents, Naresh Patel and Kailashben, and brother Brijesh (17) expressed satisfaction with the judgment. A distraught Naresh Patel told The India Express, ‘‘We had lost faith in the judiciary but now after four years we have been vindicated. This will set an example for others.’’