India, Feb. 28 -- A Delhi court on Friday sentenced a man to death for the 2019 rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl, calling the crime "rarest of the rare" and emphasising that society's interest in protecting vulnerable children from such horrific crimes warranted the strictest punishment.

The court also handed a life term to the convict's father for aiding in the murder to cover up the sexual assault.

Declaring that convict Rajender was a "menace to society" and that his crime fell in the "rarest of rare" category, additional sessions judge Babita Puniya stated that there was "no probability of his reformation", necessitating his "removal from society".

The court also sentenced Rajender's father, Ram Saran, to life imprisonment...