UP court sentences ex-junior engineer wife to death for sexual exploitation of 33 children

PTI, February 20, 2026, New Delhi : A special court in Uttar Pradesh's Banda on Friday sentenced a former junior engineer of the Irrigation Department and his wife to death for the sexual exploitation of 33 minor boys -- some as young as three -- over a decade, officials said.

The POCSO court termed the crimes as "rarest of rare" and held Ram Bhawan and his wife Durgawati guilty of systematically abusing children between 2010 and 2020 and producing child sexual abuse material.

Convicting the duo under provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the court sentenced them to death for offences including aggravated penetrative sexual assault, using a child for pornographic purposes, storage of pornographic material involving children, and abetment and criminal conspiracy, they said.

In a statement, the CBI said that the trial court also directed the Uttar Pradesh government to pay Rs 10 lakh in compensation to each of the 33 victims.

"The court further ordered to distribute the cash amount seized from the house of the accused among the victims in equal proportion," the agency said.

The court termed the crimes as "rarest of rare" on the basis of unparalleled depravity and systemic nature of their crimes.

Ram Bhawan was booked by the CBI on October 31, 2020, along with other accused, on the allegations of sexual abuse of children; using children for pornographic purposes; and creation and dissemination of Child Sexual Abuse Material over the Internet.