Raipur, August 26: Chhattisgarh's Durg district court awarded death sentence to a 24-year-old man for raping and murdering a five-year-old deaf and mute girl in the year 2015.

Shubhra Pachouri, special judge, POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act), pronounced the death penalty to convict Ram Sona. The judge termed Ram Sona guilty on Friday and sentenced him to death, Durg's Additional Public Prosecutor Kamal Kishore Verma was quoted saying by the PTI.

Ram Sona's mother Kunti Sona (42) and friend Amrit Singh (23) were also awarded jail term by the court. The court gave five years' imprisonment to them for concealing and trying to destroy the evidence related to the case.

The convict is a resident of Khursipur locality in Durg. He is convicted of raping a speech and hearing-impaired girl on February 2015. The girl lived in the same locality as his. Ram Sona, after raping the girl, smothered her to death, said Verma.

After the convict's mother, the 42-year-old Kunti Sona learnt of the crime committed by her son, she and the friend of Soni, Amrit Singh, helped Soni to pack the girl's body in a plastic bag.

All the three convicts then dumped the girl's body at a secluded spot which is about 45 km from the place of crime. It was Ram Sona's mother's confession to the crime, that led the police to solve the case and all the three were subsequently arrested. The prosecutor claimed that this is the first case in which the Durg district court has handed a death sentence to a rape accused.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 26, 2018 07:39 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).