The High Court declared the case to be rarest of rare cases and there was no room for leniency. Considering the rape and murder of a 5-year-old girl in Bhopal as horrific, the High Court upheld the death sentence awarded to the accused. The division bench of Justice Vivek Agrawal and Justice Ramkumar Choubey stated that the accused had exceeded all limits of brutality.

 

This is rarest of rare cases. No leniency should be shown to the accused. The harshest punishment is necessary in such cases to satisfy the conscience of society. On September 24, 2024, a woman filed a complaint at Shahjahanabad police station in Bhopal about her 5-year-old daughter’s disappearance. On September 26, after a foul smell emanated from a flat in Idgah Hills, police conducted a search.

 

The girl’s body was recovered from a plastic tank in the bathroom. The girl was raped and murdered by a criminal named Atul Nihale. After reviewing the girl’s medical reports, the court stated in its verdict, “The accused sexually assaulted the girl by gagging her and using a knife and then hid her body in a tank. This act of the criminal is extremely cruel, inhuman and barbaric.”