“Monstrous burial of dignity”: Nashik court awards death penalty in rape-murder of four-year-old girl

A Nashik court has sentenced a man to death for the rape and murder of a four-year-old girl, calling it a “monstrous burial of her dignity.” Read the details

PGurus Newsdesk

October 19, 2026

DNA analysis matched the child’s biological evidence with clothes recovered from the accused’s home

The court said the child was killed solely to suppress evidence and silence her

A court in Maharashtra’s Nashik has sentenced Vijay Sanjay Khairnarto death for the rape and murder of a four-year-old girl, observing that showing leniency to the killer would undermine public confidence in justice.

“Burial of her dignity in darkness”

The court said the rape of a child is a “monstrous burial of her dignity in darkness.” It held that the crime left no room for mercy, and that a lesser punishment would shake people’s trust in the justice system.

The conviction

The accused, Khairnar, was convicted under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for kidnapping, rape causing death, murder and causing the disappearance of evidence. He was also convicted under Sections 4 and 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

Motive: to silence the child

Analysing why the killing took place, the court recorded that the murder was committed solely to suppress evidence and silence the child. It said this was not a killing in a quarrel or in sudden anger. A murder committed to destroy the victim of an earlier crime and to wipe out the evidence of it, the judge held, is among the most reprehensible of killings, because it treats a child’s life as an obstacle to be removed.

The prosecution’s case

The prosecution was led by Special Public Prosecutors Ujjwal Nikam and S K Sonawane, who examined 24 witnesses. They relied on a comprehensive DNA analysis and forensic findings, which matched the child’s biological evidence with blood-stained clothes recovered from the accused’s home.

What happens next

Under Indian law, a death sentence passed by a trial court must be confirmed by the High Court before it can be carried out, and the convict has the right to appeal.

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