Dhar (MP), May 17: A court in Dhar district today awarded death sentence to a 19-year-old man for rape and murder of a four-year-old girl in December last year. "Girls are the blessings of God and a criminal who mutilates them into corpse does not deserve leniency," sessions judge Akbar Sheikh said in the order.

"From society's and legal viewpoint, what the accused has done is unpardonable and it falls in the rarest of rare category," the court said while sentencing the accused, Karan Bheel, to death.

"Looking at the gravity of the crime, only the death penalty will serve the purpose of justice delivery," the judge said. The judge also imposed a fine of Rs 21,000 on Bheel, said prosecutor Sharad Purohit.

According to the prosecution, Bheel abducted the girl from Jagannath Puri village on December 15 last year. After raping her, he crushed her head with a stone, it said.

After her body was found in a nearby forest, Bheel was arrested immediately and police filed a charge sheet within fifteen days. The prosecution examined 20 witnesses, Purohit said, adding that the court relied on the witnesses' statements among other evidence.