A special POCSO court on Thursday awarded a death sentence to one person for raping and murdering a six-year-old girl in Salepur area of the district.
Additional Sessions Judge Bandana Kar had on Wednesday convicted the man, MD Mustaque, for the crime after hearing the arguments from both the sides.
Mustaque was convicted under Sections 302 (murder), 363 (kidnap), 376 AB (rape of women under 12 years of age) of IPC and Section 6 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) Act.
Special prosecutor Akshya Nayak said the verdict will send across a message and hopefully deter such crimes from happening.
Kamrun Bibi, mother of the victim, said: "I am happy today and thankful to the court for awarding death sentence to the person who raped and murdered my daughter."
Mustaque had, on April 21 this year, lured the victim from her village in Salipur on the pretext of giving her chocolates and took her inside a school premise, where he raped her and later crushed her head with a stone before fleeing the spot.
After the family of the victim found the girl, they rushed her to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, where she died after undergoing treatment for eight days.
( With inputs from ANI )