A court in Punjab's Mansa district today awarded death sentence to a man in connection with the rape and murder of a six-year-old girl in 2016, describing the case as "rarest of rare". The court of Additional Session Judge Jaspal Verma held accused Kala Ram alias Kala Singh guilty of the abduction, rape, and murder of the girl in the year 2016, said Jaswant Singh Grewal, the victim's counsel. The judge observed in the order that the faith of the society by such a "barbaric act" of the convict gets totally shaken and its cry for justice becomes loud and clear.

"The offence was not only inhumane and barbaric but it was a totally ruthless crime of rape followed by cold-blooded murder. It is an act of taking advantage of absolute innocence. The sexually assaulted minor girl of six years could not have shown any kind of resistance. The rape of minor girl child is nothing but a monstrous burial of her dignity in the darkness," the judge wrote in the order.