MP: Two sentenced to death for rape, murder of minor relative

A local court has awardeddeath penalty to two men who raped and beheaded their 11-year-old relative in Madhya Pradesh's Sagar district, anofficial from the prosecution said on Thursday.

The district's Banda area court of additional sessionsjudge Umashanker Agrawal on Tuesday awarded capital punishmentto a 42-year-old man and his 25-year-old son for raping andkilling the minor, public prosecutor Tahir Khan said.

''The accused had killed the innocent girl in barbaricand demonic ways. The two are family members of the deceasedand they were supposed to raise the girl and protect her,'' thejudge said, observing that the case fall under the rarest ofrare category.

The duo was awarded death sentences twice on twoseparate counts gang rape and murder, the prosecutor said.

The victim's family had lodged a complaint with theBanda police on March 14, 2019 when their daughter wentmissing after she went to write her Class 6 examination, Khansaid.

During the probe, the police found the girl's severedhead 45 foot away from her body in Berkhedi Maujahar area ofBanda, he said, adding that the post-mortem report confirmedthat she had been gangraped.