Bengal courts awarded 6 death sentences in last 6 months for crimes against girls

Kolkata: While the last judicial execution in West Bengal for the rape and murder of a minor in Kolkata took place over two decades ago, courts across the state have awarded death penalties to six convicts in the last six months for perpetrating sexual assaults on girls.

Another convict was also awarded capital punishment for murdering his family members, taking the total number of death penalties in the state in the last half-year to seven.

In six of the seven cases, death by hanging sentences were given for the savage nature of rapes and murders perpetrated on girls, qualifying them under the 'rarest of the rare' category, where convicts were booked under the POCSO Act, besides sections of the IPC and, later, of the BNS.

The list excludes the sentence for the RG Kar Hospital rape and murder convict Sanjoy Roy who was spared the capital punishment by a Kolkata court, after the gruesome death of the on-duty trainee medic on August 9 last year, and was sentenced to life imprisonment till death.

It also keeps out the suspected rape and murder of a 14-year-old class 8 student, whose bruised and battered body was found in New Town near Kolkata on February 7 this year, and in connection with which police have arrested a 22-year-old e-rickshaw driver.

The last judicial hanging in West Bengal took place two decades ago when Dhananjay Chatterjee, a security guard at a residential building in south Kolkata, was hanged at Alipore Jail on the eve of Independence Day in 2004 for raping and murdering a 16-year-old school student in her apartment in March, 1990.

The death sentences in connection with the horrid crimes poured in between September last year and February.

A POCSO court in Siliguri in northern West Bengal on September 7 last year sentenced Md Abbas to death after he was proven guilty of rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl in August 2023 in Matigara area while she was on her way to school.

The ruling Trinamool Congress hailed the judgment and took to its X handle to state, "This swift conviction is a testament to the efforts of WB Police, who ensured justice was served within a year. With the implementation of Aparajita Anti-Rape Bill, such exemplary punishments will become the standard, instilling fear in the hearts of predators & ensuring such barbaric acts are prevented!" On September 26, special POCSO judge of the Alipore District and Sessions Court in Kolkata sentenced Ashok Shaw, a cooking gas delivery agent, to death for a horrific crime which took place in Tiljala area in East Kolkata.

On March 26, 2023, the convict lured his neighbour's little daughter to his apartment with chocolates, raped her and then smashed her head with a hammer. The girl's mutilated body was found inside a sack in his kitchen with 28 wounds on her body, the investigating officer said.

The incident had led to violent protests in the neighbourhood when a rioting mob torched police vehicles.

Another POCSO court in Baruipur sentenced 19-year-old Mustakin Sardar to death on December 6 last year for rape and murder of a 10-year-old class 4 student who was found brutalised with 42 injuries on her body. The judgment came within 62 days after the crime was committed on October 5 that year in Joynagar's Kultali area in South 24 Parganas district.

Taking to her X handle, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote, "Conviction and capital punishment in such a case in just over two months is unprecedented in the history of the state... The govt has zero tolerance towards offences against women and will continue to ensure that justice is neither delayed nor denied." Barely a week later, on December 14, a court in Jangipur in Murshidabad district awarded capital punishment to 35-year-old Dinabandhu Haldar for the rape and murder of a minor girl in Farakka in October during Durga Puja. The court also sentenced the convict's accomplice, 23-year-old Subhajit Haldar, to life imprisonment.

Banerjee once again took to social media to state, "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." Ten days later, a trial court in Chinsurah in Hooghly district awarded the death penalty to 42-year-old private tutor Pramathes Ghoshal for murdering his elderly father, mother and sister in the district's Dhaniakhali area on November 8, 2021.

On January 17 this year, a POCSO court in Hooghly again awarded the death sentence to 42-year-old daily wage labourer Ashok Singh, who lured a five-year-old girl with a packet of chips before raping and murdering her in Gurap area of the district on November 24.

The court deemed the case 'rarest of the rare' where the criminal took advantage of the victim, his neighbour, who blindly trusted him and fondly called him 'jethu' (elder uncle).

In the latest in the series of blood-curling crimes, a special POCSO court in Kolkata on Tuesday sentenced Rajib Ghosh, an employee of a road-side eatery, to death for rape and attempted murder of a seven-month-old child in Burtolla area in north Kolkata within 75 days of his arrest after the city police managed to wrap up investigations in 26 days. The infant, a pavement dweller, continues to fight for life in the ICU of the RG Kar Hospital since her torture on November 30 last year.