Kamduni gang-rape & murder case: Calcutta HC dismisses death penalty for three, acquits one

Kolkata: Calcutta High Court on Friday dismissed the death penalty for three convicts in the 2013 rape and murder of a college girl at Kamduni in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district, and acquitted one of them while sentencing the other two to life.

The high court’s division bench of Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Ajay Kumar Gupta pronounced the verdict.

A lower court in Kolkata in January 2016 had convicted three of the six accused, namely Saiful Ali, Ansar Ali and Amin Ali to death.

However, on Friday the division bench of Calcutta High Court acquitted Amin Ali of all charges, and changed the punishment for Saiful Ali and Ansar Ali to life imprisonment while dismissing the lower court’s death penalty order for all of them.

The other three convicts, namely Imanul Islam, Aminul Islam ad Bholanath Naskar, who were earlier sentenced to life imprisonment by the lower court, were set free on Friday by the division bench of Calcutta High Court as they have already completed ten years behind the bars since the time the investigation process started in the matter.

The parents of the victim girl said they will be approaching the Supreme Court against the order of the Calcutta High Court, and will take the help of the lawyer who lead the argument in case of the Nirbhaya rape and murder case in Delhi.

To recall, the rape and murder of a 20-year-old college student in June 2013, two years after Trinamool Congress regime came into power in West Bengal after ending the 34-year Left Front rule, had rocked the entire state at that point of time.

Even when the chief minister, Mamata Banerjee went to Kamduni at that point of time, the locals had protested and had surrounded her convoy demanding exemplary punishment for the accused.

Initially, nine persons were named in the charge sheet by the officers of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the state police. However, later three were later acquitted by the lower court, while six others were sentenced.