Three men who raped and murdered an eight-year-old girl in a case which sparked outrage across India have been spared the death penalty. The Muslim girl, Asifa Bano, was drugged, held captive in a Hindu temple and sexually assaulted for a week before being strangled and battered to death with a stone in Indian-controlled Kashmir. One of them, Sanji Ram, was a retired public servant and a custodian of the temple where the girl was attacked. According to the charge sheet, the girl was abducted from her Muslim nomadic tribe in January 2018. Forensic reports found that she had been drugged with anti-anxiety medication, repeatedly raped, burned, bludgeoned with a rock and strangled.

Source: Daily Mail June 10, 2019 07:43 UTC