India, Sept. 11 -- A special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act court in Chhattisgarh's Durg has sentenced a 24-year-old man to death for raping and murdering a six-year-old girl, calling the case among the "rarest of rare".

The Supreme Court affirmed the constitutional validity of the death penalty in 1973, 1979 and 1980, holding that if capital punishment is provided in law and the procedure is fair, just and reasonable, a death sentence can be awarded but only in the "rarest of rare" cases. Courts are required to record special reasons for sentencing a convict to the gallows.

The special court convicted Somesh Yadav on Thursday under the POCSO Act Section 6(1) and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Section 103(1) ...