Ranchi, Dec 21 (IANS): A Ranchi CBI court on Saturday awarded death penalty to a man who had raped an engineering student and later burnt her to death in the state capital in 2016.

Special CBI court of AK Mishra pronounced the death penalty to Rahul alias Rocky on Saturday. He was convicted by the CBI court on Friday.

Rahul, a resident of Bihar's Nalanda district, has been convicted of raping a B.Tech student from a college on December 15, 2016 at Buty colony in Ranchi. Rahul poured Mobil oil on her face and later burnt her to death. The state police and CID failed to crack the case. The case was later handed over to CBI.

The CBI lodged FIR on March 28, 2018 and started investigation. Rahul was taken into custody from Lucknow jail and was produced in CBI court on June 22, 2019.

During investigation, CBI found that Rahul was staying at a house close to a temple in Buty colony and he was missing following the incident.

Police reached Rahul's village and took blood samples of his parents. The DNA test was carried out and the blood samples of Rahul's parents were matched with the victim's samples. The samples were positive.

CBI also found that Rahul was a habitual offender and he had been in Lucknow jail in connection with rape.

Rahul, an auto rickshaw driver, had come to Ranchi in 2016. He used to keep track on the girl moving alone during night. After finding the victim alone in her house, Rahul broke into the house and raped the girl and later burnt her to death.