Mamata Banerjee Government moves to the SC, challenging Cal High Court's Kamduni verdict acquitting one of the convicts on death row; SC show causes acquitted convict

Bengal Government of Mamata Banerjee has moved to the Supreme Court on Monday challenging the Calcutta High Court order acquitting one of the three prime accused in the 2013 Kamduni gang-rape and murder who were awarded death sentence by a lower court. The Calcutta High Court Division bench of Justice Joymalaya Bagchi and Ajay Kumar Gupta on Friday had set aside the 2016 order of Sessions Court in Kolkata that had awarded death sentences to three- Amin Ali, Saiful Ali, and Ansar Ali. The Sessions court had also sentenced three others-  Imanul Islam, Aminul Islam, and Bholanath Naskar to life imprisonment in the same case. Calcutta High Court in turn, ten years after the brutal crime and 7 years since the lower court order, had acquitted Amin Ali and converted the death penalty of the other two into life imprisonment. The High Court had also released three others from custody who were awarded life terms after a payment of Rs 10,000 each as a fine. They have already served more than 10 years in jail. The Calcutta High Court order had stoked massive public outcry as much as the crime had 10 years back.

Dismissing allegations from opposition parties and the bereaved family claiming that there were lapses on the part of the Bengal police and the state government that led to the Calcutta High Court order, the Mamata Banerjee government challenged it before the Supreme Court and appealed for an urgent hearing seeking stay on the order so that accused do not walk out of the jail. The SLP was filed at 4 am on Monday morning and the matter was mentioned before the Chief Justice Of India Justice DY Chandrachud, highlighting the sensitivity and urgency of the matter. The matter was listed before the 3 judges bench of Justice Gavai, Justice Narasimha, and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra. The matter was heard at 11.45 am and the bench issued a show cause notice to Amin Ali, acquitted by Calcutta High Court “as to why no action should be taken against him and made the matter returnable within a week’, claimed senior Advocate Sanjay Basu who was part of battery of lawyers including Advocate Kapil Sibal who appeared on behalf of the state government of West Bengal. Supreme Court however didn’t put a stay on the Calcutta High Court order since the matter came before the bench on an urgent notice.

“We had clear instruction from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to take the matter before the Apex court. She has pursued the matter with us lawyers personally considering the sensitivity of the case. She made it clear that a girl was brutally raped and killed and justice should prevail, justice should be done to the family. We are confident the Supreme Court will reverse the Calcutta High Court order” said Advocate Sanjay Basu.

On June 7, 2013, a 21-year-old college student was gang-raped and murdered in Kamduni, North 24 Paraganas in West Bengal, a crime that triggered widespread protest and anger across the state. She was returning from her college after her exams. After she had gotten off at the Kamduni bus stop and while walking back home, she was abducted and taken to an abandoned property in the neighborhood where she was gang-raped and then murdered. Her mutilated body was found later in the same night. The heinous crime had come in the footsteps of the 2012 New Delhi Nirbhaya gang rape that had stoked nationwide uproar questioning the safety of women in India. “We were very upset with the Calcutta High Court verdict. My daughter was raped and killed. If Nirbhaya convicts could be hanged, how was my daughter’s rape and killing any less gruesome, and why shouldn’t get justice. The bad law of Calcutta High Court has killed my daughter once again. We hope the Supreme Court sends all 6 accused to the gallows and sets the right precedent for society, now that the Bengal government has challenged the high court order. I have lost my daughter and I don’t want any other daughter to be brutalized like my daughter, no other mother goes through the pain I am going through”, said the mother of the deceased girl.