Dehradun, Sept. 19 -- The state government will file a review petition in the Supreme Court against the acquittal of the prime accused in the 2014 rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl from Pithoragarh in Kathgodam in Nainital district, chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said on Thursday. "The justice department has been directed to file a review petition in the case and ensure a conviction through strong advocacy," he said, speaking to reporters in Dehradun. "Those who commit such heinous acts in Devbhoomi will not be spared. The government stands firmly with the victim's family in their fight for justice," he added. Accused Akhtar Ali, who was sentenced to death in March 2016 by a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Posco) court in Haldwani, with the sentence upheld by the Uttarakhand high court in 2019, was acquitted on September 10 this year by the Supreme Court, on the basis of alleged inconsistencies in the prosecution's version of events. The bench of justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Karol and Sandeep Mehta rejected the DNA analysis conducted by a botany expert allegedly lacking expertise in human DNA profiling. Warning trial courts against mechanical application of capital punishment, the bench said: "Any hasty or mechanical application of the death penalty, without ensuring the highest standards of proof and procedural fairness, not only undermines the rule of law but risks the gravest miscarriage of justice by extinguishing a human life irretrievably." The child was reported missing on November 20, 2014, from a Ramleela ground in Kathgodam of Nainital district, where her family was attending a wedding after travelling from Pithoragarh. After a five-day search, her body was found on November 25. The crime came to be known as the "Little Nirbhaya" case in the state. Hundreds of people on Sunday submitted a memorandum to the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), demanding that the state government challenge the Supreme Court verdict. The victim's uncle threatened self-immolation if a review plea was not filed, alleging that the government had failed to fight the case....