Calcutta High Court admits appeal of death sentence awardee in rape-murder of girl for hearing

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court has admitted an appeal challenging an order of a POCSO court that sentenced capital punishment to a convict of rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district.

A division bench presided by Justice Debangsu Basak directed the state to issue notice to the parties in the matter.

Admitting the appeal by Mostakin Sardar, the convict in the case, the division bench on Monday ordered that the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) court records on the rape and murder trial of the girl be produced before it.

The bench, also comprising Justice Md Shabbar Rashidi, directed that paper books be prepared within four weeks from receipt of the trial court records.

A paper book contains copies or abstracts of pleadings exchanged between the parties in a matter.

Hearing in the appeal will be taken up by the court thereafter.

The POCSO court at Baruipur in South 24 Parganas district had, on December 6 last year, sentenced 19-year-old Mostakin Sardar to death for raping and murdering the 10-year-old girl.

The body of the girl was recovered from a pond in Joynagar's Kultali area on October 5. The girl, a class 4 student, went missing when she was returning home from a tuition class.

The additional district and sessions judge Subrata Chattopadhyay convicted Sardar under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 65 (rape), 66 (punishment for causing death or resulting in a persistent vegetative state of the victim), and 103 (murder), besides the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).

The court gave the death penalty to the convict, describing the incident as the "rarest of rare" cases.

The police filed the charge sheet on October 30 and the trial, which began on November 5, was completed in just 21 days.