A special Pocso court in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda on Friday awarded the death penalty to a suspended junior engineer of the state irrigation department and his wife for sexually abusing 33 minor boys — some as young as three — over a decade and circulating pornographic material involving them online.
Terming the case as “rarest of the rare”, the trial court also directed the state government to pay ₹10 lakh in compensation to each of the 33 victims. The court also ordered the distribution of the cash seized from the house of the accused among the victims in equal proportion.
In a statement the CBI, which had registered the case in October 2020, said the court sentenced the two accused, Ram Bhawan and his wife Durgawati, to death for various offences under the Indian Penal Code and Pocso Act, including unnatural offences, aggravated penetrative sexual offences, using child for pornographic purposes, storage of pornographic material involving children, abetment and criminal conspiracy.
During the investigation, it was found that the couple had committed various acts of perversity against 33 boys, the agency said. “Investigation also revealed that some of the victims had suffered injuries in their private parts during penetrative sexual assault. Some of them have remained admitted in the hospital. A few of the victims developed squint eye,” the CBI said.
“Victims are still suffering from psychological trauma caused by the predators. The predators remained active in the general area of Banda
and Chitrakoot in Uttar Pradesh between 2010 and 2020,” it added.
The accused used to lure children by offering them access to video games and giving them money or gifts, the agency said.
During the probe, the CBI said, seamless coordination was ensured with forensic experts, medical experts dealing with child sexual abuse cases and child protection authorities.
The court found the crime “rarest of rare” owing to its unparalleled depravity and systemic nature.