Source – hindustantimes.com
A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court here on Saturday awarded death sentence to a man for the 2016 rape and murder of an engineering student at her home in the city’s Buty Basti.
Rahul Raj, a resident of Bihar’s Nalanda district, was convicted on Friday for raping a BTech student , and murdering her before setting her house on fire on December 15, 2016.
The case was registered the next day and was later handed over to the Jharkhand CID. The crime came to light when the victim’s sister, who was in the family home in Ramgarh district, failed to get through to her over the phone.
Alarmed, as the victim was alone in the house, her sister requested a neighbour to check on her. The neighbour visited the house and found the charred body of the victim amid thick smoke. The CBI, which took over the investigation from the state police, began suspecting Raj, when the agency found that after living in the area for three months, he had suddenly left.
Further investigation revealed that Raj, 23, was absconding and had a criminal past. He had many pseudonyms and was in a Lucknow jail in connection with another case. He had to be taken into custody from Lucknow and was produced in CBI court on June 22, 2019.
Reports said that police reached Raj’s village and took blood samples of his parents. The DNA test revealed a match with the samples lifted off the victim. The CBI filed the charge sheet on September 13, 2019 and the court framed the charges on October 25. Raj, an auto rickshaw driver, had come to Ranchi in 2016. He had reportedly been keeping an eye on the victim for a while before attacking her.
Special judge Anil Kumar Mishra on Saturday awarded the death sentence with a fine of ~5,000 under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), life imprisonment with a fine of ~5,000 each under Sections 376 and 449 of the IPC and seven years’ rigorous imprisonment with a fine of ~5,000 under Section 201 of the IPC.