Kolkata, Feb. 19 -- The relentless efforts of cops in Bengal in ensuring swift justice have led to significant convictions in cases relating to sexual assault on girls.
According to latest reports, courts across Bengal have awarded death penalties to six convicts in the past six months in cases of sexual assault on girls.
A special POCSO court in Kolkata on Tuesday sentenced a 34-year-old man to death by hanging for the rape of a seven-month-old baby in the city's Burtolla area.
The Kolkata Police wrote on its Facebook page: "Conviction secured: In Burtolla Police Station Case No. 191/2024 registered on 30th November, 2024 under POCSO Act over an incident of sexual assault on a baby. A charge-sheet was filed within 30 days after swift investigation. The accused Rajib Ghosh has been convicted by Ld. Exclusive (POCSO) Court, Calcutta and the accused has been sentenced to be hanged till death. Victim has been awarded a compensation of '10 lakhs."
The POCSO court has termed the crime "rarest of rare". The victim, fighting for her life in the hospital, suffered a complete perineal rupture. Medical experts confirmed evidence of sexual assault and assessed that she would suffer permanent damage. Sources said, the child has not gained body weight for over two months.
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.
Some other cases include a POCSO court in Siliguri on September 7, 2024 sentencing 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.
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 girl 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.
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.
In six of the seven cases, death by hanging sentences were awarded for the savage nature of rapes and murders, 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.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had lauded the pace of convictions, calling it "unprecedented". She said the state government has zero tolerance towards offences against women and will continue to ensure that justice is neither delayed nor denied. Her party, Trinamool Congress, said such swift conviction is a testament to the efforts of state police who ensured justice was served within a year. It claimed that post implementation of 'Aparajita Anti-Rape Bill', such exemplary punishments will become the standard, instilling fear in the hearts of predators and preventing such acts.
However, the list excludes the sentence for the RG Kar Hospital rape and murder convict Sanjoy Roy who was instead given life sentence. The judge had opined that it was not a 'rarest of rare' case. Subsequently, CBI had moved Calcutta High Court, appealing against the sentence on ground of 'inadequacy' and praying for death sentence.
The court has admitted the appeal and the matter is yet to be decided. An on-duty trainee medic was raped and murdered on August 9 last year at the state-run hospital. The last judicial hanging in Bengal happened 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.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.