Madhya Pradesh High Court Confirms Death Sentence in Bhopal Child Rape-Murder
Citing Supreme Court precedent, the bench ruled the crime met the rarest-of-rare threshold for the maximum punishment.
Overview
- A division bench of Justices Vivek Agarwal and Ramkumar Choubey upheld the trial court’s capital punishment for Atul Nihale.
- The court rejected mitigating claims about socio-economic background and noted prior cases against the convict.
- Investigators recovered the child’s body from a plastic water tank in the accused’s flat, with AIIMS Bhopal confirming sexual assault and homicidal death.
- DNA analysis linked investigative samples to Nihale, and his disclosure led police to clothes, a knife, and other material evidence.
- A Special Court in Bhopal had convicted him in March 2025 under BNS and POCSO provisions, while his mother and sister were acquitted as co-accused.