Published Feb 21, 2026 | 10:45 PM ⚊ Updated Feb 21, 2026 | 11:44 PM
The CBI said even three-year-old boys were among the victims.
Synopsis: Besides sentencing the couple to death, the court also ordered compensation of ₹10 lakh each to the abused children. The accused faced charges under various sections of the IPC and the POCSO Act, including unnatural offences, aggravated penetrative sexual offences, using children for pornographic purposes, storage of pornographic material involving children, abetment and criminal conspiracy.
In a landmark judgement, a special court for POCSO cases in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda has sentenced a man and his wife to death for sexually abusing and exploiting 33 minor boys — some of them aged three — between 2010 and 2020.
The CBI, which probed the case, identified the couple as Rambhawan, a junior engineer in the state Irrigation Department, and Durgawati.
Besides sentencing them to death, the court also ordered a compensation of ₹10 lakh each to the abused children. The accused faced charges under various sections of the IPC and the POCSO Act, including unnatural offences, aggravated penetrative sexual offences, using children for pornographic purposes, storage of pornographic material involving children, abetment and criminal conspiracy.
While awarding the punishment, the court found the accused persons’ criminal acts to be the rarest of the rare on the basis of unparalleled depravity and systemic nature of their crimes, the CBI said in a statement.
“The sheer scale of this victimisation across multiple districts, combined with the extreme moral turpitude of the convicts, marks this as a crime of such an exceptional and heinous nature that it leaves no room for reformation, necessitating the ultimate judicial deterrent to meet the ends of justice,” the premier investigation agency quoted the court.
The CBI, which registered the case on 31 October 2020 against Rambhawan and other unknown persons, found that some of the abused boys suffered injuries to their private parts and other health issues, and faced extreme mental trauma.
“A few of the victims developed squint eye. Victims are still suffering from psychological trauma caused by the predators,” the CBI said.
“The predators remained active in the general area of Banda and Chitrakoot in Uttar Pradesh between 2010 and 2020,” the federal agency said, adding that they used different methods, including access to online games and offering money and gifts, to lure the children.
The CBI filed the chargesheet on 10 February 2021, and charges were formally framed on 26 May 2023. The court delivered its verdict on Friday, 20 February 2026.
In a Landmark Verdict POCSO Court Sentences Two Child Predators to Death for Heinous Abuse of 33 Minor Children pic.twitter.com/4vF2Q1Sk74
— Central Bureau of Investigation (India) (@CBIHeadquarters) February 20, 2026
