Gujarat Man Stabs Minor Girl 34 Times, Gets Death Sentence; Court Refers To Incident As ‘Nirbhaya-Like Case’

A court in Gujarat’s Rajkot on Tuesday sentenced a man to death after he was accused of killing a minor girl by stabbing her 34 times. The man stabbed the girl because she refused to enter into a relationship with him.

The incident occurred in the year 2021. Jayesh Sarvaiya, the accused, had also injured the girl’s brother, who had tried to intervene during the attack. He was then charged with violating relevant sections of the IPC and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act.

The man and the minor girl were Jetalsar village residents from Jetpur taluka. For a long time, Jayesh Sarvaiya had been harassing the victim. On March 16, 2021, the accused went to the victom’s home with a proposal, which she declined.

When the victim tried to escape, the accused, enraged by the girl’s refusal to accept the proposal, thrashed her and stabbed her 34 times. The incident angered the locals, who demanded that the accused face the death penalty.

The Supreme Court defined this case as the “rarest of the rare cases” and referred this incident as Nirbhaya-like case because it violated the collective conscience.

“Under section 302 of the IPC, the court sentenced the accused to death and fined him Rs 5,000. It was the type of murder that shook the entire community and was therefore taken seriously,” Janak Patel, a special public prosecutor, stated.

The convict has been given a month’s time to file an appeal.