Family members of the college student of Kamduni who was raped and killed in June 2013 met the registrar general of the high court on Wednesday and demanded speedy disposal of the appeals moved by the six convicts.

A city sessions court had in 2016 sentenced three of the convicts to death and three others to life imprisonment. All six are lodged in Baruipur jail.

The family members, who were accompanied by neighbours and a teacher of the victim, told registrar-general Rai Chatterjee that the trial court’s verdict was yet to be implemented because the appeals filed by the convicts were pending in the high court for more than three years.

“Six years have passed since the incident but residents of the area are still waiting for the culprits to be punished. People are losing faith in the judicial system because of the inordinate delay. So, we met the registrar-general and sought early disposal of the case,” said Pradeep Chatterjee, who taught the victim at college.

After the meeting, the family members and those accompanying them said the registrar-general had asked them to write to the Chief Justice of the high court and assured them that proper action would be taken.

The victim, who was then 19, was walking home to Kamduni, about 50km from Calcutta, after alighting from a bus on June 7, 2013, when she was dragged into a farm along a deserted road by a gang.

The second-year BA student, who was returning home after appearing in a test at her college, was gang-raped and murdered.

Her mutilated body was found the next morning in a corner of the farm.

Nine persons were arrested. One of them died in jail during the trial and two were acquitted.

Additional sessions judge Sanchita Sarkar had on January 29, 2016, handed out capital punishment to Aminul Ali, Saiful Ali and Ansar Ali. Emanul Islam, Aminur Islam and Bhola Naskar were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Senior lawyers of the court described the family’s move as “unique” and “unprecedented”.

“I don’t remember the last time family members of a victim came to meet senior court officials demanding speedy justice,” said a lawyer, who has been practising at the high court for 40 years.

The family members said their lawyers, Jayanta Narayan Chatterjee and Shirshendu Sinha Roy, had advised them to meet the registrar-general when they approached them for speedy disposal of the appeals.

Chatterjee later said the state government had moved a death reference in the matter, which will be disposed of along with the appeals by the convicts.

“Whenever a subordinate court awards death penalty, the state government has to file a death reference in the high court before executing the order,” Chatterjee said.