UP court awards death penalty to couple for sexual abuse of 33 minor boys

A special court in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda on Friday sentenced a former junior engineer of the Uttar Pradesh Irrigation Department and his wife to death for the sexual exploitation of 33 minor boys over a decade under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, as per reports.

Ram Bhavan (50) and his wife Durgamati (47), allegedly ran a racket in which they sexually abused young boys aged between 3 and 10 years. In the hearing of this case, the POCSO court on Friday awarded the death sentences to both husband and wife and described the case as falling within the ‘rarest of rare’ category. 

The convicted couple reportedly used to sell the pornographic material thus produced on the dark web across 47 countries.

As per reports, the court convicted them on charges including aggravated penetrative sexual assault, using a child for pornographic purposes, storage of pornographic material involving children, and abetment and criminal conspiracy. 

Furthermore, the court also directed the state government to pay a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to each victim. The court also ordered the distribution of the cash amount seized from the house of the accused persons among the victims in equal proportion.

According to the Special Public Prosecutor, the CBI had reportedly registered the FIR on October 31, 2020, against Ram Bhavan and other unknown persons on allegations of sexual abuse of children, using children for pornographic purposes, and the creation and dissemination of Child Sexual Abuse Material over the internet.