Pune: A special fast-track court on Thursday held casual worker Bhimrao Kamble (65) guilty of kidnapping, rape and murder of a three-year-old girl on May 1 at Nasrapur in Bhor taluka of the district.Special judge S R Salunkhe will pronounce a sentence on June 29 after assessing the aggravating and mitigating circumstances presented by both the prosecution and the defence on Thursday. “The court now has to decide whether to pronounce a death sentence or life imprisonment,” special public prosecutor Ajay Misar said. “The court heard the state and the defence lawyers as well as the accused, who has claimed innocence,” he added.“We have sought capital punishment by submitting that the case falls within the ambit of the ‘rarest of rare’ case as defined by the Supreme Court (SC) and have given 12 landmark SC rulings in support of such submission,” Misar told TOI outside the courtroom that was packed with a large number of lawyers, litigants and visitors.Security was tightened around the courtroom as the accused was produced before the judge around 11am for the pronouncement of verdict. Superintendent of police (Pune Rural) Sandeep Singh Gill and other senior officers were present.While a full text of the judgment is expected to be released post-sentencing on June 29, the judge, while pronouncing Kamble guilty in open court, observed that the accused deserved no leniency considering the “inhuman brutality involved and the nature of crime”. The injuries found on the victim were evident enough to conclude such brutality, the judge said.“The last seen theory and the entire unbroken chain of circumstantial evidence established beyond doubt by the prosecution, are the two prime factors that led the court to hold the accused guilty,” judge Salunkhe said.The judge also referred to Kamble’s previous history of harassment and sexual crimes and noted that throughout the trial in the present case, the accused showed no remorse, whatsoever, on his face. “The accused did not learn any lesson from his past mistakes. Though the accused has been acquitted in past cases of misbehaving with an old woman and a young girl from his village, he knows the law and different sections of the law,” the judge noted.The defence has not been able to counter the last-seen theory and the chain of circumstantial evidence produced by the prosecution, the judge held.The girl’s father, who was present outside the court, said, “The judge should punish the convict severely so that no one dares to repeat such a crime in the future.”Prosecutor Misar told TOI, “All the charges applied by the prosecution stand entirely proved. This includes, kidnapping, molestation, rape and murder under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and sections 4 (penetrative sexual assault), 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault), 8 (sexual assault) and 12 (sexual harassment) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.”LANDMARK RULINGThe Pune court’s ruling marks a significant development, delivered within 40 days of the Pune Rural police filing the chargesheet and just 55 days after the brutal crime, the accused in which had prior sexual offence recordsThe crime triggered widespread outrage, with spontaneous protests on May 1. People, including the victim’s family, have since been demanding capital punishmentResponding, CM Devendra Fadnavis ordered a fast-track trial and appointed Ajay Misar as special public prosecutor. Police filed the chargesheet within 15 days and the prosecution listed 82 witnessesCharges were framed on May 28, followed by an in-camera, day-to-day trial. Final arguments concluded on June 21. As no private lawyer was willing to represent the accused, the court ensured legal representation through a legal aid defence counselTHE CASEThe three-year-old girl from Pune had come to her grandmother’s house in Nasrapur for summer vacationOn May 1, she was playing outside her grandmother’s home when the accused lured her to a nearby cowshed on the pretext of showing her a newborn calfHe then raped and killed her before hiding the body in the cowshed. The girl’s family started searching for her when she did not return home till late afternoonHer body was found in the cowshed. In the ensuing police investigation, the police recovered CCTV footage, which showed the accused leading the girl to the cowshedThe villagers then apprehended and handed him over to the police
