UP Court Sentences Engineer Couple to Death for Sexual Abuse of 33 Minors

A special POCSO court in Uttar Pradesh's Banda sentenced former junior engineer Ram Bhavan and his wife Durgawati to death for sexually abusing 33 minor boys, some as young as three, over a decade. The couple systematically exploited children from Banda, Chitrakoot, and nearby districts, producing and distributing child sexual abuse material on the dark web internationally. The court described the crimes as "rarest of rare" and ordered Rs 10 lakh compensation for each victim, along with distribution of seized cash among survivors. The CBI led the investigation following an Interpol alert in 2020.