A fast-track Pocso court in Murshidabad’s Jangipur on Friday sentenced a man to death for raping and killing a nine-year-old girl at Farakka on October 13.
The court has also awarded life imprisonment to a co-accused for necrophilia — obsessive stimulation with a corpse — and helping the prime accused kill the
minor victim.
Additional district judge (fast track) of Jangipur Amitava Mukherjee awarded capital punishment to prime accused Dinabandhu Haldar, 35, and life imprisonment to Subhajit Haldar, 25. The court directed the state government to pay ₹10 lakh as compensation to the victim’s family.
The conviction was delivered merely within two months (61 days) since the crime occurred, setting once again an instance of “swift justice” in the state. In a similar incident of rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl at Jaynagar in South 24-Parganas, a Pocso court in Baruipur awarded capital punishment to the guilty within 62 days.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee in a post on X congratulated the state police and officials involved in the sentencing of the accused.
“Barely a week ago, @WBPolice and our justice system secured capital punishment within just 62 days for the perpetrator of a brutal rape-murder of a minor in Joynagar. Today, death penalty has been awarded to one of two accused in the heinous rape-murder of yet another minor in Farakka...I have said this before, and I will say it again: Every rapist deserves nothing less than the harshest punishment—capital punishment...I believe that swift, time-bound trials and punishments will serve as a powerful deterrent, sending a clear message that such crimes will not be tolerated,” she wrote.
The Farakka incident had ignited massive outrage across the state that coincided with the ongoing protests over the Jaynagar incident as well as the alleged rape and murder of a trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Calcutta on August 9.
However, there appears to be no immediate hope for justice despite the case being handed over to the CBI.
On October 13, the nine-year-old victim was playing on the road in front of her house at Farakka PS Rail Colony at about 9 am, when her neighbour Dinabandhu called her to his house on the pretext of giving her flowers.
Dinabandhu first raped the girl and later called Subhajit for help. The latter also raped the girl and to wipe out evidence, Dinabandhu killed the girl with Subhajit’s help.
They also packed the body into a sack and waited to dump it at a suitable moment. But when a search to locate the missing girl began in the afternoon, a few neighbours said they last saw her being summoned by Dinabandhu.
Local residents then forced their way into Dinabandhu’s house and spotted the girl’s body in a sack.
The neighbours beat up the accused and handed him over to the police. During interrogation, Halder confessed to raping and killing the girl and also disclosed the involvement of Subhajit. The police arrested Subhajit two days later.
The police began a case against the duo charging them with causing death, raping a minor, and kidnapping a minor with the intent of murder. The police completed the probe and charge sheet in just 21 days.
The court held the duo guilty on Thursday and on Friday announced its judgment.
Government lawyer Bivash Chattopadhyay said: “After taking all the evidence into account that include DNA matching report, semen sample report and other relevant evidence, the court found the crime, as a rare one and the duo as guilty. I demanded the maximum punishment of death. The court sentenced Dinabandhu Haldar to death and Subhajit Haldar to
life imprisonment.”
Speaking on a Facebook live session over the case, ADG of police (South Bengal) Supratim Sarkar said “to confirm the convicted duo’s involvement, drone mapping software was used apart from their mobile phone’s tower location, their Google map locations were used, which amply helped prove the duo guilty to the satisfaction of
the court”.
Additional reporting by Subhasish Chaudhuri
