 "Kolkata POCSO court hands death sentence to man for raping 7-month-old infant in 'rarest of rare' case")
synopsis
A POCSO court in Kolkata on Tuesday (Feb 18) sentenced 34-year-old Rajib Ghosh (alias Gobra) to death for the rape of a seven-month-old infant on November 30 last year, which left the child in critical condition. The court classified it as a "rarest of rare" case due to its brutality.
Kolkata: A POCSO court on Tuesday (Feb 18) sentenced a 34-year-old man to death for the rape of a seven-month-old infant on November 30 last year, which left the child in critical condition. The court classified the case as "rarest of rare" due to its severity. The court also ordered a compensation of Rs 10 lakh for the survivor. The verdict was delivered a day after Rajib Ghosh, also known as Gobra, was found guilty of the crime.
"This is a rarest of rare case. There cannot be any other punishment that the court can think of," judge Indrila Mukhopadhyay Mitra said, reading out the verdict.
The verdict was delivered within 80 days of the crime. The death sentence was imposed under Section 6 of the Pocso Act, which pertains to aggravated penetrative sexual assault. A 2019 amendment to this section introduced the death penalty for such offenses. Additionally, Ghosh was convicted under BNS Sections 65(2), 118, 137, and 140.
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Special Public Prosecutor Bivas Chatterjee advocated for the death penalty for the accused.
"The defence lawyer argued that the accused was young, and had elderly parents at home. To counter that argument, we cited several Supreme Court rulings," Chatterjee said as quoted by Times of India.
"We felt Kolkata Police made history, and the judicial system of Bengal became a part of history. This is because we have not seen a death sentence given in such cases until now. In this case, the girl survived. The defence lawyer repeatedly argued whether we could seek death penalty, since the girl survived. The law, however, does not state that the victim must die to pronounce a death sentence. I argued in court that even if the girl returns home healthy, the incident would cause her lifelong mental anguish."
This marks the seventh death sentence issued by courts in West Bengal over the past six months and the sixth capital punishment under the POCSO Act for sexual assault against minors.
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