Hoshiarpur fast-track court sentences 33-year-old UP labourer to death for sexual assault and murder of five-year-old boy. (Representational)A 33-year-old migrant labourer from Uttar Pradesh was sentenced to death by a fast-track special court in Hoshiarpur on Friday for the sexual assault and murder of a five-year-old boy in September last year.Additional Sessions Judge Manpreet Kaur described the case as one of the “rarest of rare” and sentenced Nanke Yadav alias Radhe Sham, a resident of Gonda district, to death under Section 103 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).The court also sentenced Yadav to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment under Section 140(1) of the BNS, seven years under Section 238 of the BNS, 20 years under Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and five years under Section 10 of the POCSO Act. The sentences will run concurrently. A fine of Rs 5,000 was imposed under each section.The court also awarded Rs 5 lakh in compensation to the parents of the deceased child under the Punjab Victim or their Dependents Compensation Scheme, 2011.According to complainant’s counsel Ashwani K Verma, the incident took place on September 9, 2025, when the boy went missing after visiting a gurdwara in Mohalla New Deep Nagar, Hoshiarpur, with his nine-year-old sister.Yadav, who was living in the New Sabzi Mandi area of Hoshiarpur at the time, allegedly lured the boy away on the pretext of helping him push his toy two-wheeler. The child’s body was recovered from bushes near the boundary wall of a cremation ground in Rahimpur the following morning.A case was registered at the Industrial Focal Point Purhiran police station on September 10, 2025, based on the boy’s father’s statement. Police arrested Yadav within 24 hours of the registration of the FIR.Story continues below this adThe court convicted Yadav on September 15, 2026, finding that he had abducted the child, committed aggravated sexual assault and subsequently murdered him. The court reserved its order on the quantum of sentence for September 18.The death sentence cannot be executed unless it is confirmed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.Yadav has also been informed of his right to appeal against the conviction and sentence within 30 days, the complainant’s counsel said. (With PTI inputs)