Bengal: Court sentences seven persons to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment for gangrape

Kalyani (WB), Aug 29 (PTI) The Kalyani Additional District Judge court here on Friday sentenced seven persons to rigorous imprisonment for 20 years for the gangrape of a woman in October 2024.

While eight persons were accused of the henious crime that took place under a road overbridge near Kanchrapara-Kalyani railway tracks in West Bengal, one was acquitted.

Judge Suberthi Sarkar ordered rigorous imprisonment of 20 years each to the seven persons found guilty of the crime.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 each on the seven convicts and directed that failure to pay the penalty will result in further jail term of one year each.

The prosecution lawyer stated that eight persons were gambling under the overbridge when a couple was walking along the railway tracks on October 30, 2024.

The gamblers, seeing the couple, pounced on them and after beating up the husband, gangraped the woman after dragging her to a spot under the bridge, the lawyer said.

On a complaint by the husband, police arrested all the eight accused and filed an FIR under various sections of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including wrongful restraint and gangrape, additional SP, HQ, Ranaghat police district, Siddharth Dhapola said.

Following the trial that was completed within 10 months, the court declared seven of the eight accused persons guilty of the crime on Thursday.

The convicts were identified as Kishna Prasad, Ajoy Debnath, Sunny Sinha, Dhruv, Bikash Chowdhury, Sonu Shaw and Raja Ghosh, police said. PTI COR AMR MNB