MEERUT, Nov. 2 -- A Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act court in Shahjahanpur district on Friday sentenced a 32-year-old man to death for raping a seven-year girl and killing her five-year-old sister in February 2021, while terming the crime "planned, extremely heinous and cruel" and falling in the "rarest of rare" category. The court of additional district judge/ special judge (POCSO Act) Manoj Kumar Sidhu also imposed a fine of Rs.1,37,500 on the convict Anil alias Chameli and ordered that he be hanged till death. The court observed that failure to award capital punishment in this case would send a "wrong message to society" and raise "question marks over the judicial process". On February 22, 2021, the two sisters left their home in a Shahjahanpur village under Kant police station in the afternoon to bathe at a tap in a primary school. When they did not return by evening, their family began a search. Around dusk, the younger girl was found dead in a field outside the village. Nearly six hours later at 11 pm, the elder one was discovered 100 metres away, barely breathing and soaked in blood. She survived after prolonged treatment. Police registered an FIR against unknown persons on the complaint of the girls' grandfather. Investigation zeroed in on Anil, a nomadic honey collector who frequently visited the village to extract honey from beehives. Some villagers had seen him luring the sisters with biscuits and the promise of honey the fateful day. Under sustained interrogation, Anil confessed to his crime. Additional district government counsel (ADGC) Sanjeev Singh said the judgment painted a grim picture of the convict's depravity, highlighting that the crime was premeditated and unprovoked as Anil exploited the innocence of children. The court rejected the defence plea that Anil bore responsibility of his mother's upkeep, noting that he was a vagrant who sustained himself by selling honey and had no fixed income or proven familial obligations. The victims' father, a hawker who sells wares door-to-door and occasionally works as a labourer, broke down while recounting the horror. "Even after four years, the memories haunt us," he said, tears welling up. Expressing satisfaction with the verdict, the victims' father said: "We had full faith in the court. Justice has finally reached my daughters."...