Two sex attackers are sentenced to death in India for gang-raping girl, 14, and burning her alive inside a furnace in ‘rarest of the rare’ case that shocked the country as mother cries ‘justice’ in court
Two sex attackers have been sentenced to death in India for gang-raping a young girl and burning her alive in an oven. This is a ‘rare case’ that shocked the nation.
The two brothers, reportedly identified as Kalu, 25, and Kanha Kaleblia, 21, were found guilty on Saturday of the rape and murder of the 14-year-old girl in August last year.
The Bhilwara Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) court also acquitted seven other persons, including three women accused of destroying evidence.
Two of the three women are reportedly married to the Kalbeliya brothers, and the acquittal will be challenged in the Rajasthan High Court.
While delivering the verdict, Judge Anil Gupta classified the case as the ‘rarest of the rare’.
Two brothers, reportedly identified as Kalu, 25, (left) and Kanha Kalbeliya, 21, (right), were on Saturday found guilty of the rape and murder of the 14-year-old girl in August last year
The 14-year-old girl was gang-raped and burnt alive in an oven (pictured) in Bhilwara, Rajasthan on August 2 last year.
The victim’s distraught parents were also present at the hearing, with her mother shouting: “We have justice.”
“My daughter got justice today. I haven’t been able to eat properly for the past few months. Now I will eat in peace,” she said.
Special public prosecutor Mahaveer Singh Kishnawat told reporters: “Kalu and Kanha were given the death penalty.”
“Magistrate Anil Gupta of Bhilwara POCSO court has found two main accused guilty in the incident. The remaining seven have been acquitted,” he added.
He also confirmed that the prosecution had taken statements from as many as 43 witnesses, 42 of which supported the evidence.
The barbaric crime took place on August 2 last year in Bhilwara, Rajasthan, after the unnamed girl left her home to take care of her family’s goats before going missing.
When she did not return home, her family launched an urgent search to find her.
Police officials told TOI, “The girl’s brother saw several charcoal kilns (ovens) set up by the people of a nomadic community.
They added: ‘Smoke coming from one of the ovens caught his attention and made him suspicious as they were not active at night.
“He rummaged through the oven with a stick and searched through the charred pieces.”
Among the items he found a bracelet that belonged to his sister, which he had tragically gifted to her just a few days earlier.
A team of forensic experts and police officers were rushed to the scene where they uncovered body parts, along with the remains of the victim’s clothes and shoes.
A police spokesperson confirmed at the time that the girl was still alive when she was set on fire.
Court documents also suggested the victim was splashed with petroleum-based chemicals before being burned alive.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Kotri Shyam Sundar Bishnoi said a total of eleven people, including two minors, have been arrested in the case for their alleged involvement.
“Two main accused, managers of the oven, kidnapped the girl when she went to graze the cattle on August 2,” he said.
‘The two brothers raped her repeatedly for more than four hours. Later they called their wives, mother and other aides, who threw the minor girl alive into the coal furnace early the next morning.
“After the incident, they also collected some parts of the minor girl’s body and threw them in a pit close to the oven to destroy the evidence,” Bishnoi said.
The police had filed a 473-page complaint against the eleven suspects on September 3 last year.
“While the hearing of nine suspects was underway in the special POCSO court, the two minors are being heard separately,” officials said.
Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot also publicly welcomed the verdict.
“The court’s decision awarding death penalty to the accused of rape and murder of a minor in Bhilwara’s Kotri in August 2023 is absolutely welcome,” he said.
“During the incident, our government immediately took action against the suspects and arrested them… The charge sheet of this case was also filed within a month. The perpetrators have now been convicted within ten months,” he wrote on his official X account.