Ranchi, May 2 (IANS): Terming it the rarest of rate cases, a Ranchi court Wednesday awarded the death sentence to a youth, Bijendra Kumar, for beheading a girl in a college campus here last year.

Ranchi District Session Judge S.H. Kazmi had convicted Bijendra on April 26 in gruesome murder of Khushboo on April 27, 2011 when she was coming out from the classroom after appearing in the intermediate examination in St. Xavier's College.

The awarding of sentence was earlier fixed for April 30 but was deffered for Wednesday. The victim was a resident of Tupudana in Ranchi and had met Bijendra in Jamshedpur while she was living with her grandmother.

Bijendra, an engineering student, expressed his love for Khushboo but she turned his proposal down. Khusboo shifted to Ranchi and her marriage was later fixed. Bijendra was putting pressure on her to get married to him.

Expressing happiness over the death sentence, Khushboo's father, Lal Maheshwarnath Sahdeo said: "The death sentence will give solace to soul of Khushoo. The judgment will prevent repetition of such incidents."