Salem youth gets death for beheading girl

Coimbatore: A Pocso Court in Salem on Tuesday awarded death penalty to a 28-year-old youth, who beheaded a 14-year-old Dalit girl as she threatened to inform her parents on his sexual advances.

According to the prosecution, K Dinesh Kumar from Sundarapuram in Attur barged into the house of the girl and severed her head with a sickle right in front of her mother and threw it on the road. The incident happened on October 22, 2018. The girl, studying in Class 8 at a Government Middle School in Thalavaipatti visited Dinesh’s house to get thread to string flowers, when he attempted to sexually abuse her. The shocked girl left threatening to inform her parents.

In a short while, Dinesh Kumar visited her house with a sickle, abused her by referring to her caste and beheaded the girl. Based on a complaint, the Attur police registered cases against him under IPC sections 294 (b) for uttering obscene song or words, 302 for murder besides on the SC/ST Act-2016 and Pocso Act.

The Pocso Court judge Muruganandam awarded death sentence for murder, life term for abusing by referring to caste and imposed a penalty of Rs 26,000 to be paid to the victim’s family.

The girl’s mother Chinnaponnu said, “I am happy that he was awarded death sentence. No other child should undergo such cruelty like what happened to my daughter,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Karur Mahila Court on Tuesday awarded 10 years imprisonment to Francis Xavier (29), a driver, who sexually harrased a 17-year-old girl and ordered compensation of Rs 3 lakh to the victim within three months.