Bhopal, March 18 : A court in Madhya Pradesh's Bhopal, on Tuesday, pronounced capital punishment to a man accused of raping and murdering a five-year-old girl in September 2024.

While two women co-accused, who are the mother and sister of the main accused, were awarded imprisonment of two years for misleading and hiding truth from the police after the incident took place.

Calling the incident "brutal" and "heinous", Special District Court Judge Kumudini Patel said the accused person "do not deserve to live in the society" and pronounced death punishment.

"The Court has awarded death punishment under Section 103, 66 and 64 (A). While, the accused has been awarded life imprisonment under the POCSO Act. Two women, who were also found guilty of misleading investigation, were sentenced for two years' imprisonment," Special Public Procecutor in the case, Divya Shukla, said.

On September 24 last year, a five-year-old girl went missing from Idgah Hills multi-storeyed building.

The parents of the victim had lodged a missing complaint at the Idgah police station.

Police teams carried out a search operation for more than 15 hours in the surrounding areas, including market and public places, however, the body of the victim was found in a closed flat in the same building.

The post-mortem report had revealed that the girl was strangled to death after rape.

Police had questioned the accused Atul Bhalse, his sister Chanchal Bhalse and mother Basanti Bhalse, who lived in the flat where victim's body was recovered and they confessed to committing the crime.

The accused's family kept searching for the victim along with the latter's family.

They took the victim's family all around to search her so that no one gets suspicious.

/IANS