Man on death row for sodomising, strangling minor boy hangs self in Yerawada jail

Pune: A 39-year-old man on death row for sodomising and murdering a minor boy allegedly committed suicide in his cell at Yerawada Central Prison here by hanging himself with a bedsheet, a senior official said on Friday.

Khalak Singh Panchal was awarded death sentence in September this year by a special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) court for sodomising and murdering an eight-year-old boy at Chakan, 35 km from here, in 2013.

"Convict Panchal was lodged in a separate cell and at around 8 PM on Thursday, he allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself with the use of bedsheet which is provided to the inmates," Jail Superintendent U T Pawar said.

Panchal, a contract labourer working in Chakan at the time of the crime, was a native of Hamirpur in Uttar Pradesh.

On May 15, 2013, he had called few children, including the deceased boy, to his place by luring them with chocolates.

He then sodomised the boy before strangling him. Body of the victim, with his clothes taken off and blood oozing from his mouth, was found at an under-construction building the same night.

Panchal was arrested when he was preparing to leave the town.

He was tried under sections 302 (murder), 377 (unnatural sex) of IPC and relevant sections of the POCSO Act.