A 24-year-old man has been awarded death sentence by a court in Chhattisgarh's Durg district for raping and murdering a five-year-old deaf and mute girl in 2015. Special Judge, POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act), Shubhra Pachouri, pronounced Ram Sona, guilty on Friday and sentenced him to death, Durg's Additional Public Prosecutor Kamal Kishore Verma told PTI.

The court also awarded five years' imprisonment each to his mother Kunti Sona (42) and friend Amrit Singh (23) for concealing evidence of the offence. The convict, a resident of Khursipar locality in Durg, had raped the speech and hearing-impaired girl, residing in the same area, on February 25, 2015, and then smothered her to death, Verma said.