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West Bengal: Siliguri court orders death sentence for rape-murder convict
The incident occurred last year, when a minor girl on her way to school was brutally raped and murdered in an abandoned area in Siliguri.
A court in West Bengal's Siliguri on Saturday sentenced the convict in a rape and murder case, involving a minor girl, to death. The crime took place last year.
The additional district and sessions Judge sentenced MD Abbas to the death penalty.
“On the last occasion, we pleaded for the death sentence because three sections on which the punishment was proved among the other sections carries a maximum punishment. So last day I had a one-and-a-half hour hearing on this point trying to project this case as one of the rarest of the rare cases,” special public prosecutor Bivas Chatterjee was quoted as saying by ANI.
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Chatterjee further explained that the death penalty was imposed under two consecutive sections: Section 302, which pertains to murder, and Section 6 of the POCSO Act.
Additional Sessions Judge Anita Mehrotra Mathur concluded the case after recording testimonies from 33 witnesses and considering the prosecution's arguments.
According to ANI, the incident occurred on August 21, 2023, when a minor girl on her way to school was brutally raped and murdered in an abandoned area under the jurisdiction of Matigara Police Station in Siliguri. The police launched an investigation and arrested MD Abbas within six hours of the crime.
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This judgment comes at a time when the nation is witnessing protests over the brutal rape and murder of a trainee doctor at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. The case is still under investigation, with one accused, Sanjay Roy, a civic volunteer, arrested. In a remand note to the trial court, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said that Roy alone committed the crime and that there was no ‘gang rape’ involved in the incident.
Other similar judgements in rape cases
In May this year, the Kerala High Court upheld the death sentence handed down by a trial court to Muhammed Ameer ul-Islam, the sole convict in the 2016 rape and murder of a 30-year-old law student in Ernakulam district.
The accused, a 22-year-old migrant labourer from Assam, had trespassed into the victim’s home near Perumbavoor on April 28, 2016, and fled after committing the crime. The law student, who lived with her mother, was found murdered in her residence. According to the police, she was raped and brutally assaulted with sharp-edged weapons before being killed.
In February this year, a 28-year-old man was sentenced to death by a sessions court for raping and murdering a three-year-old girl after abducting her while she was leaving a ‘bhandara’ organised near a temple in Gurugram, five years ago. The crime took place on November 11, 2018.
The special fast-track court of Additional Sessions Judge Shashi Chauhan found him guilty on February 3.
The court sentenced him to death under Section 376AB (rape of a woman under 12 years of age) and Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code and imposed a fine of ₹25,000.
