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A Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court in Uttar Pradesh's Banda district on Friday awarded a death sentence to two accused, Rambhawan and his wife Durgawati, for the various offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the above act.
According to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Trial Court also ordered the government to award compensation of Rs 10 lakh to each victim. The Court further ordered to distribute the cash amount seized from the house of the accused persons among the victims in equal proportion, a press release issued by the CBI said. The CBI registered the case on October 31, 2020, against accused Rambhawan and other unknown persons on allegations of sexual abuse of children, using children for pornographic purposes, and creation and dissemination of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) over the internet. "During the investigation of the case, it surfaced that the accused persons had committed various forms of perversity, which included aggravated penetrative sexual assaults against 33 young boys, some of them as young as three years of age," the release read. "Investigation also revealed that some of the victims had suffered injuries to their private parts during penetrative sexual assault. Some of them have remained admitted to the hospital. A few of the victims developed Squint Eye. Victims are still suffering from psychological trauma caused by the predators," it further read. The predators remained active in the general area of Banda and Chitrakoot in Uttar Pradesh between 2010 and 2020. The accused Rambhawan was working as a Junior Engineer in the Department of Irrigation. The accused used to apply different forms of modus operandi on children, including access to online video games and giving money/gifts to allure them. As per CBI, the investigation remained sensitive towards the minor victims while conducting their examinations and ensured their emotional well-being through counselling. After the conclusion of the investigation, CBI filed a chargesheet on October 10, 021 against the accused. The CBI framed the charges on May 26th, 2023. While awarding the severest punishment, the court found the criminal acts of the accused to be "rarest of rare" based on unparalleled depravity and systemic nature of their crimes, which involved the orchestrated sexual exploitation and abuse of 33 minor children. According to CBI, the sheer scale of this victimisation across multiple districts, combined with the extreme moral turpitude of the convicts, marks this as a crime of such an exceptional and heinous nature that it leaves no room for reformation, necessitating the ultimate judicial deterrent to meet the ends of justice. (ANI)
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