‘Rarest of rare’: Bengal court awards death penalty to man who raped 7-month-old infant

KOLKATA: A Pocso court in the city on Tuesday sentenced a 34-year-old man to death for raping a seven-month-old infant on Nov 30 last year, leaving her fighting for life. The court termed the case "rarest of rare".

The court also awarded compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the survivor. The sentencing came 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 sentencing comes within 80 days of the crime. The death sentence was given for being convicted under Section 6 of the Pocso Act, which deals with aggravated penetrative sexual assault. An amendment to the section in 2019 had added the death penalty.

Ghosh was also found guilty under BNS sections 65 (2), 118, 137 and 140.

Legal experts pointed out that the penalty in such cases ranged from 20 years behind bars to life imprisonment, and even death. The judge chose death, reasoning that the manner in which the seven-month-old girl was abused was extremely rare.

Special public prosecutor Bivas Chatterjee sought 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. "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."

After the verdict, DC (North) Dipak Sarkar said: "We identified the suspect after reviewing three to four days' worth of CCTV footage, totalling over 19 hours.... We managed to deliver justice for the heinous crime within 80 days." Rajib was arrested on Jan 4 and cops submitted a charge sheet in 26 days. Trial began on Jan 7 and was completed in 40 days, said Chatterjee. A total of 24 witnesses testified.

The public prosecutor added that analysis of the suspect's gait pattern — a study of how the accused walked — had thrown up unique results, which proved crucial in establishing guilt.

Source: Times of India, Dwaipayan Ghosh, February 20, 2025

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