A 33-year-old porter from Bhiwandi in Thane district of Maharashtra was sentenced to death by a court here on Wednesday for kidnapping, raping and murdering a seven-year-old girl in 2019. The Special POCSO judge KD Shirbate convicted Bharatkumar Dhaniram Kori under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and the Indian Penal Code and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000. The prosecution examined 25 witnesses during the trial.

Special Public Prosecutor Sanjay More told the court that Kori abducted the girl from near her house in the Subhash Nagar area in Karivali village on the night of December 21, 2019, took her to an isolated place and raped her. After the sexual assault, he smashed the girl's head with a stone before fleeing the spot. The father of the victim used to run an eatery in Bhiwandi city, the prosecution said.