Vijayawada: Man gets death penalty for 7-year-old girl's murder

Vijayawada: An accused murder of a 7-year-old girl at Nallakunta area, Gollapudi, under Bhavanipuram police station limits on November 10, 2019, was awarded death penalty on Tuesday. The 5th additional district judge-cum-special judge for POCSO cases awarded death penalty under Section of 302 of IPC.

A minor girl Movva Dwaraka, daughter of Movva Anil Kumar, was brutally murdered by the convict Barlapudi Pentaiah, at his residence. According to prosecution, when the girl went to his house to watch television, Pentiah tried to molest the girl and later, fearing she may raise an alarm, closed her mouth. In the melee, the girl died due to suffocation. He broke the legs of the girl, stuffed the body in a gunny bag and kept it under the cot in his home to dump it on the outskirts of the village in the night.

However, parents and colony residents while searching for the girl, noticed the body in the house. Before that, the parents lodged a complaint to the Bhavanipuram police on missing of the girl suspecting that she might have been kidnapped.

During the course of investigation, accused Pentaiah confessed to the crime. Bhavanipuram police under the supervision of circle inspector D K Mohan Reddy filed the charge sheet and probed the case. Basing on the evidence, the judge on Tuesday awarded death by hanging. The convict also awarded imprisonment for seven years under the Section 201, life imprisonment till death under Section 376 (A), (B). All punishments should be faced at the same time. Parents of the girl expressed satisfaction over the verdict and demanded that the killer must be punished as early as possible.

Additional public prosecutor G V Narayana Reddy hailed the verdict and felt the culprit deserves the punishment. This is the second death penalty awarded in the city in recent years. In 2003, a youth, Manohar was awarded death penalty for murdering a degree student Sri Lakshmi, in broad daylight in a private college in Satyanarayanapuram.