Man gets 30 years in prison for sodomy,murder

The two sentences will run one after the other and the judge has ordered that Raju must stay in prison for 20 years before any remission of the sentence may be considered.

The court said the convict,who was the maternal grandfather of the boy,belongs to a “category of perpetrators of crime who if not removed from society would destroy it”.

In his complaint,the child’s father Achchey Lal said Raju,a mason,took the boy away from the construction site,where the family was staying,in May 2011.

Lal,a construction worker,said he had gone out to buy groceries as Raju was invited for dinner that night.

Raju who was drunk and told the family that he was also going to the market with the boy. He took the boy to an open area and sodomised him. Then he strangled him.

Raju threw the boy’s body into the bushes and returned to his home in Vishnu Garden. He was arrested the next day.

The court said the convict had violated the trust that the child and the family had in him.

“While Lal had gone to the market so that the convict,who was their guest,could be served dinner,the convict was satisfying his hunger for sex…against the order of nature upon the child,” the court said.

Judge Lau said there was a need to pass strictest sentences on those who sexually abuse children.

“The message to be sent by the court has to be loud and clear,and that is “do not mess with a child” and any person who meddles with the child,male or female,in any manner shall not be spared come what may,” the court said.

The judge has asked the Director General of Prisons in Delhi to look into the possibility of creating a separate jail for child sex offenders and their medical and psychological treatment on the lines of prison structures in European countries.

She called for “zero-tolerance” in such cases,noting that sexual assault of children was on the rise in the country as children were “vulnerable prey” for offenders.