Chandigarh, June 4 -- Calling it a crime most brutal, bestial and barbaric that clearly falls in the "rarest of the rare" category, a special POCSO court in Chandigarh on Tuesday awarded death penalty to a 40-year-old man who raped and murdered an eight-year-old girl in the city in January 2024. The court of additional sessions judge Yashika ruled that the convict, Hira Lal, be hanged by neck, till he is dead, only after confirmation by the Punjab and Haryana high court. "The entire record of the case, along with the duly sealed electronic evidence, be submitted before the high court for confirmation of death sentence under Section 366 (1) CrPC," said the court. It also ordered the State Legal Services Authority to disburse a compensation of Rs.17 lakh to the dependants of the victim. On Monday, the court had convicted Hira Lal, a painter by profession and a native of Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, under Section 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code. The child's body, with the throat slit and multiple stab wounds, was discovered near a dumping site in Ram Darbar on January 22, 2024, three days after she went missing on January 19. After the body was found, police had identified Hira Lal with the help of CCTV footage which showed him carrying a handbag. His house was raided and found locked since January 19, the same day the child went missing. Police broke the locks and found the slippers of the victim in the house that confirmed that the child was brought there. A chase spanning three states, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, ensued and finally, on the seventh day, police managed to trace him to Nawada, Arrah, in Bihar. The accused was subsequently found to have two wives and five children, the eldest being a 13-year-old daughter. According to police, he was cheating on both his wives, as none of them knew about each other. While pronouncing the death penalty for the convict, the court came down heavily on the convict for never showing any guilt or remorse on account of his barbaric deeds, right from the inception of the investigation, till the conclusion of the trial. The convict committed rape and brutal murder of a girl child, aged eight years and 11 months. The victim suffered nine major injuries, including cuts, abrasions and tearing of private parts, the court noted. "As per the disclosure made by the convict, he had killed the victim by cutting her throat with a knife. The dead body of the victim was recovered...in a heap of garbage near the public toilets. At that time her clothes were stained with blood at places. The convict tried to escape the consequences of his acts by hiding the body of the victim in the heap of garbage and by trying to abscond. He never showed any guilt or remorse... Rather, he has been raising false defences of blind rape and murder, misuse of blood sample and false implication," the court held. Before handing out the sentence, the court observed with concern how children were ignorant of the act of rape and not able to offer resistance: "...they become easy prey for lusty brutes, who display the unscrupulous, deceitful and insidious art of luring female children and young girls. Therefore, such offenders who are a menace to the civilised society should be mercilessly and inexorably punished in the severest terms. We feel that judges who bear the Sword of Justice should not hesitate to use that sword with the utmost severity, to the full and to the end if the gravity of the offences so demand." In the judgment, the court cited the UN convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) adopted in the United Nations General Assembly in 1989. "The UNCRC is the most complete statement of children's rights ever made. It has been ratified by 196 countries and India has ratified the convention on December 11, 1992, and our nation is committed to the core principles of the convention, which includes survival and protection of children. Hence, adequate punishment must be granted to the offenders against children to safeguard the right of survival and protection, of children," it said....