Kolkata: A special court in South 24 Parganas district in West Bengal awarded death sentence to a 19-year-old man for the offence of rape and murder of a 10-year class 4 girl within two months of the crime.
The POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) court of Additional District Judge Subrata Chattopadhyay in Baruipur, while sentencing the man to death, described the incident as the “rarest of rare” cases.
Incident led to violent protests in area
The incident happened while the protests over the rape and murder of an on-duty woman doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata was going on and this incident led to violent protests in the area, which is about 50 km from Kolkata. Protesters torched vehicles, ransacked a police outpost and blocked the roads. The West Bengal government had formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case.
Trial in the case was completed in just 21 days
The chargesheet in the case was filed by the West Bengal police on October 30 and the trial in the case began on November 5 and was completed in just 21 days, news agency PTI reported.
The POCSO court convicted the accused under sections 65 (rape), 66 (punishment for causing death or resulting in a persistent vegetative state of the victim) and 103 (murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and provisions of the POCSO Act.
Minor girl had gone missing while returning from a tuition class
The minor girl had gone missing while returning from a tuition class and her body was recovered from a pond in Joynagar’s Kultali area on October 5.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee hails verdict
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who had met the victim’s parents at the state secretariat and had assured them of all assistance in getting justice, hailed the special court verdict, calling it unprecedented in the state’s history.
“Conviction and capital punishment in such a case in just over two months is unprecedented in the history of the state. I congratulate the state police and all those involved in the prosecution process for this outstanding achievement. The government has zero tolerance towards offences against women and will continue to ensure that justice is neither delayed nor denied,” Banerjee posted on social media platform X.
