Kamduni gang-rape and murder case: Bengal government might move SC against Calcutta HC order

Kolkata, Oct 6 : The West Bengal government might move the Supreme Court against the Calcutta High Court order on Friday rejecting the death penalty for three convicts in the 2013 rape and murder of a college girl at Kamduni in North 24 Parganas district, and acquitting one of them while sentencing the other two to life imprisonment.

On Friday, the high court’s division bench of Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Ajay Kumar Gupta acquitted Amin Ali, who was given death penalty by a lower court in Kolkata in 2016, of all charges and changed the punishment for Saiful Ali and Ansar Ali to life imprisonment instead of death.

The other three convicts, namely Imanul Islam, Aminul Islam ad Bholanath Naskar, who were earlier sentenced to life imprisonment by the lower court, were set free on Friday as they have already completed ten years behind bars since the time the investigation process started in the matter.

Sources in the state Law Department said that the state government is consulting legal experts and considering the option to move the apex court.

"There is a scope for the state government to file a special leave petition at the Supreme Court against the division bench order," said a state law department official.

The parents of the victim, who was 20 years of age then, has already accused the public prosecutor for lackadaisical argument at the high court and has said that they will move the apex court.

They also said that they will take the help of the lawyer who led the argument in case of the Nirbhaya rape and murder case in Delhi.

src/vd.