The incident had occurred in Bedag village in Miraj in July 2010. The division bench of Justices P V Hardas and A M Thipsay convicted Raju Paswan, a native of Bihar, on the basis of the medical report explaining the nature of injuries sustained by the girl and Paswan’s confession. Soon after Paswan was traced, he admitted to having raped the girl and dumping her body in a well to conceal the crime. Paswan was an employee of the victim’s father.

One of the victim’s playmates, a young boy, had testified against Paswan, whom he had seen dragging the girl away. The defence had argued for an acquittal on the basis that the minor’s testimony was unreliable, and that Paswan’s ‘confession’ before villagers could not be relied on. Significantly, the trial court had also failed to call upon Paswan to enter his defence, which his lawyer Niteen Pradhan argued, marred the trial.