UP court sentences to death junior engineer, wife for sexually abusing children

Calling the crime one of the “rarest of the rare”, a special POCSO court in Banda on Friday handed the death sentence to a suspended junior engineer of the Uttar Pradesh Irrigation Department and his wife for sexually abusing multiple children and circulating pornographic content involving them online.

The Central Bureau of Investigation, which had registered the case in October 2020, said the court awarded capital punishment to Ram Bhawan and his wife Durgawati for offences under the IPC and the POCSO Act, including unnatural offences, aggravated penetrative sexual assault, using children for pornographic purposes, storing child sexual abuse material, abetment and criminal conspiracy. The agency said the court treated the case as falling in the “rarest of rare” category because of the extreme depravity and the organised nature of the abuse, which involved the exploitation of 33 minors, Indian Express reported.

The trial court also directed the government to pay compensation of ₹10 lakh to each survivor and ordered that the cash seized from the accused’s house be distributed equally among the victims, the agency said.

Ram Bhawan, 48, who is from Banda, was arrested in November 2020 and has remained in custody since then, while Durgawati, 45, was taken into custody a month later. A day earlier, the court had convicted both of them under Section 377 of the IPC, provisions of the POCSO Act and the IT Act. Durgawati, who had been out on bail, was taken into custody after the conviction. The couple were produced before the court under heavy security for the sentencing.

Government counsel Kamal Singh said Special Judge Pradeep Kumar Mishra imposed the death penalty after concluding that the matter met the threshold of the “rarest of rare”. He added that the prosecution examined 74 witnesses during the trial, including 25 victims, and that investigators recovered dozens of videos and hundreds of photographs documenting the abuse. Singh also said Ram Bhawan had been posted in Hamirpur, Banda and Chitrakoot, and was arrested from his last place of posting.

Defence lawyer Bhura Prasad Nishad said the verdict would be challenged in appeal. He added that the court ordered confiscation of over ₹8 lakh recovered from the accused’s residence and noted that the victims had been medically examined in Delhi.

According to the prosecution, the arrest followed sustained surveillance. Investigators also alleged that Durgawati assisted in the crimes by threatening witnesses and attempting to conceal evidence linked to her husband’s actions.