Berhampur: A 26-year-old man, who sodomised and murdered a four-year-old boy in Ganjam district three years ago, was sentenced to life imprisonment by a special Pocso court here on Friday.Additional district-cum-special Pocso court judge Pranati Pattnaik also imposed a Rs 10,000 fine on the convict, who was a distant relative of the boy. The convict will undergo jail for an additional year, if he fails to pay the fine, said special public prosecutor Narayan Panda.The court also directed the district legal services authorities to pay Rs 2 lakh to the parents of the deceased, considering the gravity of offence and the severity of mental harm suffered. “The court pronounced the judgment after recording the statements of 17 witnesses, including police and doctor and based on the medical reports,” said Panda.Sources said the convict had unnatural sex with the boy on the roof of the house on Jan 24, 2023. Later, he thrashed him to death on an iron door of an under-construction house fearing he may disclose the crime.During a search, parents of the deceased learnt that their child was with the convict on the roof. They started to search the house and found the boy lying in a pool of blood on the roof. He was immediately rushed to the nearby hospital, where doctors declared him dead.The deceased’s father had lodged an FIR. A day after the incident, police arrested the man under different sections of the IPC and Pocso Act. “He was in jail since his arrest as his bail plea was rejected by the court earlier,” said Panda.
