Crime scene at doddakere Maidan in front of Mysuru Palace; the convicted Karthik
MYSURU: A special fast-track court in Mysuru dealing with cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act has sentenced 32-year-old Karthik, alias Garadi, to death for the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl in 2025. The girl was helping her family sell balloons on the streets of Mysuru when the incident occurred on October 9, 2025, a week after the Dasara celebrations ended. Karthik, 32, was arrested by Mysuru city police within a day following an intensive search. Special court judge Anand P Hogade convicted Karthik on October 15 under various provisions of the POCSO Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
The accused was convicted and sentenced just over a year after the incident.
He has been in judicial custody since then. The court sentenced him to death on Saturday.
She cited the victim’s age, the extreme brutality of the crime, the 27 stab wounds inflicted on her, and the aggravated sexual assault and murder. The nomadic family of the victim arrived in Mysuru on September 18, 2025, to sell light balloons, dolls, headbands, plastic bangles and other toys. As usual, the family returned to their makeshift shelter on the night of October 8 and went to sleep in the tent with the children. In the early hours of October 9, at around 3.21am, Karthik abducted the sleeping nine-year-old girl from the tent, carried her about 100 feet away and subjected her to brutal sexual assault.
Special public prosecutor KB Jayanthi argued for the death penalty, describing the case as one of the “rarest of rare”. The prosecution presented a complete chain of evidence to establish the crime and proved the charges against the accused beyond reasonable doubt through witness testimony and documentary evidence. The family comprised six members and stayed in a makeshift plastic tent set up on the footpath on Manasara Road, within the limits of Nazarbad police station. They would leave for work at around 5pm every day and return to their tent at about 11pm.