Gandhinagar, April 26: A court in Gujarat's Bharuch district on Thursday sentenced a 24-year-old youth to death for raping and murdering a four-year-old boy.
Judge S. Dave found Shambhu Padhiyar of Pilundra village guilty under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
In April 2016, Padhiyar lured the boy away with an ice cream. He then took him near a village pond where he sexually assaulted and then brutally murdered the boy.
When the boy did not return home, his family and neighbours began searching for him and found his mutilated body near the pond.
The postmortem report revealed that the boy had been sexually assaulted multiple times.
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Stranded tourists find shelter in mosque amid heavy snowfall in Kashmir
Srinagar(PTI): In a heartwarming display of Kashmiri hospitality, locals in Gund, on the Srinagar-Sonamarg highway, opened the doors of a mosque to shelter a group of travellers stranded due to heavy snowfall.
A dozen tourists from Punjab found themselves caught in the snowfall on Friday while returning from the Sonamarg area, officials said
Their vehicles became stuck in the snow and with no nearby hotels and local houses too small to accommodate the group, Gund residents opened the doors of the Jamia Masjid, allowing the tourists to stay there for the night, officials added.
"It was the best possible solution as the mosque has a hamaam, which stays warm throughout the night," said Bashir Ahmad, a local resident.
The Jamia Masjid at Gund is located less than 10 kilometers from the site of a terrorist attack in Gagangir, where six people -- five non-local labourers and a local doctor -- were killed in October this year.
A video of the tourists spending the night inside the mosque has since gone viral.
The tourists expressed their gratitude to the locals for their help. "We were stuck in the snow, and you came to our rescue. We are extremely thankful to all of you," one of them said.
Another tourist added, "Everyone should visit Kashmir to experience its hospitality. Everyone here is kind and it is safe to visit. Please come to this paradise on earth."
Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq praised the gesture and said it was heartening to see Kashmiris open their mosques and homes to stranded tourists amidst heavy snowfall.
"This gesture of warmth and humanity reflects our longstanding tradition of hospitality and helping others in times of need," he said on X.
Elsewhere, heavy snowfall also left many tourists stranded along the Srinagar-Jammu highway and at tourist destinations like Doodhpathri.
However, not all the stranded tourists were complaining. "The car ignition isn’t working due to the cold, and we have to push it. But it's fine; we're enjoying it," said a tourist from Haryana as he waited for clearance at Qazigund to head home.
Police and civil administration have begun reaching out to stranded tourists, providing hot drinks and other necessities to keep them warm.
