Indian engineer, wife sentenced to death for sexual assault of 33 minor children

Calling it a "rarest of rare" case of unparalleled depravity, a Special POCSO Court in Uttar Pradesh's Banda, on Friday, sentenced to death a government junior engineer (JE) and his wife after holding them guilty of sexually assaulting as many as 33 minor children, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official said.

Rambhawan, employed in the Uttar Pradesh Irrigation department, and his wife Durgawati, were sentenced to death for the various offences under the Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, including unnatural offences, aggravated penetrative sexual offences, using children for pornographic purposes, storage of pornographic material involving children, abetment and criminal conspiracy.

The trial judge noted that the sheer scale of this victimisation across multiple districts, combined with the extreme moral turpitude of the convicts, marks this as a "crime of such an exceptional and heinous nature that it leaves no room for reformation, necessitating the ultimate judicial deterrent to meet the ends of justice."

"The convicted junior engineer, who committed the offences over a decade, used to lure victims by offering them access to online video games, money and gifts," the CBI said in a statement.

The trial court also directed the Uttar Pradesh government to award a compensation of Rs1 million to each victim.

The court also ordered that cash seized from the house of the accused persons should be distributed among the victims in equal proportion.

The CBI registered the case on Oct.31, 2020, against Rambhawan and other unknown persons on allegations of sexual abuse of children; using children for pornographic purposes; and creation and dissemination of child sexual abuse material over the internet.

During the investigation of the case, it surfaced that the accused persons had committed offences, including aggravated penetrative sexual assaults, against 33 male children, some of them as young as three years.

The federal agency's investigation revealed that some of the victims had suffered injuries on their private parts during penetrative sexual assault.

Some of the victims have remained admitted in the hospital while few of them developed squint eye.

The CBI said that some victims are still suffering from psychological trauma caused by the predators.

The child sexual assaulters remained active in Banda and Chitrakoot in Uttar Pradesh between the year 2010 to 2020, the CBI said.

A CBI official said the investigating agency remained sensitive towards the minor victims while conducting their examinations and ensured their emotional well-being through counselling.

"During the investigation, seamless coordination was ensured with forensic experts, medical experts dealing with child sexual abuse cases and child protection authorities. Investigation also ensured handling and preservation of digital evidence," the CBI added.

"After the conclusion of the investigation, the CBI filed a charge sheet on February 10, 2021, against Rambhawan and his wife. The charges were framed by the trial court on May 26, 2023," the CBI statement said.

Indo-Asian News Service