Kasaragod, Jul 16: A court here on Thursday awarded death sentence to a 52-year-old contractor for the murder of a minor girl who worked as housemaid at his residence in Goa in 2007. The crucial verdict comes eight years after 14-year-old maid servant Safiya was brutally killed by the convict.
The court said Rs.8 lakh from the amount should be paid to the victim’s parents within a year failing which the government would have to pay the amount with six per cent interest effective from August 16, 2016.
The court also awarded a three-year jail term to Hamza under IPC Section 201 (destroying evidence) and another three years under Section 361 (kidnapping of a minor from lawful guardianship). Hamza will have to undergo six years’ rigorous imprisonment as the court made it clear that the sentence will run consecutively.
The court also imposed an additional fine of Rs.5,000 each in default of which the convict will have to spend one more year in jail. Hamza was immediately sent to the Kannur Central Jail.
The court also awarded a jail term of three years to Hamza’s wife Mymoona, 46, the third accused, under IPC Sections 201 and 361 and slapped a fine of Rs.5,000 each on the woman in the two cases. However, the sentence will run concurrently.
The fourth accused Abdulla, 48, a relative of the couple, was awarded three years’ rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of Rs.5,000. The court released them on bail for a month to go in appeal in a higher court.
The court, while delivering the judgment, lauded the investigation carried out under DySP K.V. Santhosh and the exemplary job of public prosecutor C. Shukkur.
The victim’s parents, residents of Madikkeri in Karnataka, filed a complaint at the Adhur police station on December 21, 2006, about their missing daughter.
A Crime Branch probe was ordered in the case following a public agitation.
The Crime Branch, which had to rely on scientific evidences, recovered the skeletal remains of the girl from an under construction check-dam at Mallora in Goa.
The prime accused had maintained that the girl died of burns after hot water splashed on her in the kitchen at his Goa residence.
However, the prosecution refuted the argument, holding that scientific evidence proved that the girl was brutally murdered.
Lesson for child traffickers
The capital punishment awarded to K.C. Hamza should be viewed as an apt lesson for those directly or indirectly involved in child trafficking, district sessions court judge M.J. Shakthidharan said, delivering the judgment.
There has been an increase in atrocities on minors, including trafficking incidents. Many persons or institutions involved in such incidents are seldom brought to book, he said.
He lauded the efforts of the investigation team for seeking the services of forensic experts to throw light on the case.
Also Read: Three held guilty in Safiya illegal confinement, murder case
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