Calcutta High Court commutes death penalty of 2 to life terms without remission for 60 years

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court has commuted the death sentence of two men convicted of gangrape and murder of a five-year-old girl to life imprisonment without the possibility of remission for 60 years.

A division bench presided by Justice Debangsu Basak upheld the conviction of Fagun Mandi and Rabindra Routh by the Jhargram sessions court, which had found them guilty of gangrape, aggravated penetrative sexual assault, murder, kidnapping, abduction of a minor, and destruction of evidence.

The trial court had earlier ruled that, owing to the brutal nature of the crime, it satisfied the 'rarest of rare' case and merited the death penalty.

The division bench, also comprising Justice Md Shabbar Rashidi, said taking into consideration the socio-economic background of the two appellants as also the nature of the crime, "we deem it appropriate to impose life sentence on both the appellants without the possibility of remission for a period of 60 years from the date of commission of the offence." In its judgment delivered on Wednesday, the court also noted that the state government, in a report dated June 9, had spoken positively about the possibility of reformation of the two convicts.

The senior advocate for the appellants argued that the case did not qualify as one of the rarest of rare, warranting the imposition of the death penalty.

He also claimed that the prosecution's case is replete with missing links, uncorroborated recovery and suspiciously tailored testimonies which have failed to meet the test required for a conviction.

He contended that under such circumstances, the conviction and sentence should be set aside, and if the conviction is upheld by the high court, then the death sentence be commuted to life imprisonment.

The public prosecutor appearing for the state contended that the prosecution was able to establish the charges beyond reasonable doubt.

The court noted that the victim’s father had filed a written complaint on November 4, 2021, stating that the girl had gone missing around 10 am from their home.

Her body was recovered from an agricultural field on November 7, 2021.

The division bench concluded that the prosecution had established that the victim suffered aggravated penetrative sexual assault and was murdered.