Bombay high court refuses to suspend life sentence and release on bail man convicted of five-year-old’s rape-murder

Mumbai: Bombay high court has refused to suspend the life sentence and release on bail a man who was convicted of the February 2019 rape and murder of a five-year-old girl in Mahim (W). Justices Ajey Gadkari and Kamal Khata on March 6, after perusing the evidence on record, said "it prima facie appears to us that it was a brutal and horrific murder committed by the applicant of the minor victim".Mehandi Shaikh sought bail pending hearing of his appeal against the special POCSO court's April 3, 2024, verdict that sentenced him to imprisonment for the remainder of his life. According to the prosecution, on Feb 6, 2019 the minor along with her parents was sleeping on a footpath near Razzak Manzil on LJ Road. On Feb 7 her father reported to Mahim police that around 5 am when he was awake, his daughter was missing. Thereafter the police received information that a girl was lying unconscious on the rear side of a lane near a furniture store. They rushed and took her to the police station where she was declared dead. Her father identified her.From CCTV cameras in the vicinity, it was seen that Shaikh, then 23, was carrying the minor on his shoulder in the intervening night. He was booked under IPC for murder, rape leading to victim's death and kidnapping and under POCSO Act for aggravated penetrative sexual assault Shaikh's advocate Shashikant Chandak argued that four witnesses deposed that the footage was blurred and they were unable to identify the face. There were inconsistencies regarding the crime spot. Chandak said a string used for strangulation and the victim's clothes were recovered from a public place. The judges noted that a witness, a flower seller, identified Shaikh as the person seen in the CCTV footage. She also identified him before the trial court and narrated his habits. The judges said the evidence of the medical officer who conducted the autopsy "indicates that the said minor victim was ravished." She suffered numerous external and internal injuries. "The cause of death of the said victim is ‘asphyxia following strangulation with genital injuries'," they said.The judges were "not inclined to suspend the sentence of the applicant and release him on bail, during the pendency of the appeal." "Application is accordingly rejected,'' they directed.