Youth gets life sentence for rape, murder of 6-year-old

Warangal: Close on the heels of capital punishment awarded by the Warangal District and Sessions Court to a youth who was found guilty of molesting and killing a nine-month-old infant, the same court on Friday awarded life sentence to 24-year-old Katakam Shiva who faced similar charges.

Shiva belonged to Gorikothapally village under Regonda mandal in Bhupalpally and was arrested for molesting and killing a six-year-old girl of the same village on December 3, 2017. During the police inquiry he confessed that he killed the girl owing to family feud.

The girl who was watching a rally organised by the MRPS, in memory of activist Bharathi who died during a protest in Hyderabad, went missing on that fateful day.

However, the next day, villagers found the girl's body in the agricultural fields. Based on the complaint, police investigated the case and registered cases under 364,302, 201,376(2)(i) IPC and 5(i) (m) 6 of POCSO Act 2012 and examined 14 persons. Following which the First Additional District Judge K Jaya Kumar pronounced the judgment after the completion of trial.

K M Kiran Kumar, SDPO Bhupalapally, Public Prosecutor M Satyanarayana, second investigation officer and inspector of Chityala police station G Mohan attended the court.

This is the second such case in just about one-and-a-half month. It may be recalled here that the same court pronounced death sentence to Polepaka Praveen who was found guilty of molesting and murdering a nine-month-old infant.