‘No room for reformation’: Why court gave death to UP couple who raped and filmed over 30 kids, sold it as porn online

ASpecial margaret court in Banda, Uttar Pradesh, ruled thither was no chance of protestant reformation if pokey solo was awarded to a couple who sexually abused and filmed more than 30 children to sell the videos online. Judge Pradeep Kumar Mishra, delivering the sentence on February 20, thus directed that Ram Bhavan, a former junior engineer with the state government, and his wife Durgawati be “hanged till death”.The court categorised the case as falling within the “rarest of rare” bracket necessary for death penalty, citing the extreme scale and duration of the offences, under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.The judge observed that the calculated nature of the crimes left “no room for reformation” and that the “gravity of the crime and its far-reaching impact on vulnerable children justified the maximum punishment under law”."Such offences not only destroy the lives of children but also shake the moral foundation of society. Any leniency in such cases would send a dangerous message," the court said."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," it said.Alongside the death penalty, the court ruled that 33 victims be given ₹10 lakh in compensation by the state government.‘Acts of perversity’ over a decade in Banda, for a global racketThe crimes spanned from 2010 to 2020, and involved systematic sexual exploitation of at least 33, and possibly even 50, minor boys, primarily from economically weaker families.Ram Bhavan, a JE in the irrigation department, turned his home into a hub for abuse, luring children with gifts such as “mobile phones, chocolates, and watches”, as well as internet access and online games, the prosecution said.Speaking to the Hindustan Times, a senior CBI officer underlined the disturbing nature of the evidence: “During the investigation, it surfaced that the accused had committed various acts of perversity, including aggravated penetrative sexual assaults against 33 male children, some of them as young as three years of age. The probe also revealed that some of the victims had suffered injuries to their private parts.”The enterprise was not limited to Banda or UP, but part of a vast international network. Investigators found that the couple recorded the assaults and transmitted the material via encrypted platforms and the ‘dark web’. The dark web is usually defined as a portion of the internet hidden from search engines with anonymous networks that mask users’ real identity.Buyers of the videos were spread across at least 47 countries.Tipped off by Interpol that found three mobile numbers linked to sales of such videos online, the UP police filed a case in 2020.Searches at the couple's residence yielded eight mobile phones, a laptop, sex toys, and a pen drive containing videos of over 30 children and nearly 700 photographs.‘Severe psychological harm’The court's decision was heavily influenced by the permanent toll the abuse took on the children.Beyond the immediate physical trauma, a CBI officer said that “some of the victims developed squint eye” and some “are still suffering from psychological trauma caused by the predators”The court noted the abuse had caused “severe physical and psychological harm”.The judge emphasised that the predator couple remained active in the Banda and Chitrakoot area for a full decade, meaning a sustained destruction of childhood rather than an isolated incident.Effectiveness of POCSOThe sentencing occurs at a time when India has reached what experts have called a successful “tipping point” in its fight against child sexual abuse. According to a recent report by the Centre for Legal Action and Behaviour Change (C-LAB) for Children, titled ‘Pendency to Protection’, the year 2025 marked the first time the country disposed of more POCSO cases (87,754) than were newly registered (80,320), achieving a national disposal rate of 109%.“India is now at a tipping point in its response to child sexual abuse. When the system begins to dispose of more POCSO cases than it registers, it moves from intent to impact. Our research consistently shows that prolonged delays intensify trauma for child survivors. Sustaining this momentum is essential if timely, child-centred justice is to become the norm rather than the exception,” Purujit Praharaj, director of research at India Child Protection, was quoted as saying by Hard News at the time of the report’s release.However, despite this national average progress, challenges remain in states like Uttar Pradesh, which accounts for 37% of all cases pending for more than five years, the report noted. To address this, the report recommended allocating ₹1,977 crore to establish 600 additional e-POCSO courts, aiming to clear the national backlog of over 2.6 lakh cases within four years.