Mysuru:  The 6th Additional District and Sessions Court, which is also the special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) Court, yesterday sentenced a 30-year-old man to 20 years rigorous imprisonment for raping and killing a relative’s two-and-a-half-year-old daughter on Oct.30, 2015.

The accused here is Saddam alias Hussain, a resident of Jnanaloka Ambedkar Colony behind Columbia Asia Hospital.

He was arrested by Metagalli Police and had submitted a charge-sheet in the Court. The Judge Vijayakumar Paule took up the case in a fast-track mode and announced the jail term in just two years. Shivarudraswamy was the Special Public Prosecutor.

When the child’s father fell ill in October 2015, he left the child under the care of his sister and her husband Saddam in their tent on Mysuru-Bengaluru Highway behind a Club. On Oct.30, at around 9 pm, Saddam called the child, who was playing with his wife, in the guise of giving her a chocolate.

Eager for the chocolate, the innocent child ran into Saddam’s arms and he took her to an under-construction building at a desolate place and harassed her sexually. Unable to comprehend what was happening with her, the child started screaming. Saddam then slapped her and she started bleeding from her nose. He then raped her and caused injuries to her private parts before strangling her to death.

He brought the child to his house in the middle of the night and when his wife questioned Saddam, he had told her that the child fell and sustained injuries. Later at around 1.30 am on that day, Saddam went to the child’s father and informed him that his daughter   had died.

After learning from Saddam’s neighbours that child’s body bore injury marks and had been murdered, the father lodged a Police complaint.

Residents of the area even prevented Saddam from taking the dead child in an autorickshaw for burial. Area residents said that Saddam was addicted to marijuana (ganja) and alcohol and the child easily fell for his trap.

Metagalli Police came to the spot and arrested Saddam and took the statements of the child’s father and the residents.

Post-mortem report confirmed that the child was assaulted and raped. The case was later transferred to Narasimharaja Police Station who submitted a charge-sheet to the court.