Woman activists protest outside the city sessions court in Kolkata on Thursday. (Express photo by Subham Dutta) Woman activists protest outside the city sessions court in Kolkata on Thursday. (Express photo by Subham Dutta)

A Kolkata court Saturday sentenced three convicts to death and three others to life imprisonment for the gangrape and murder of a 20-year-old woman in Kamduni in 2013.

Additional Sessions Judge Sanchita Sarkar handed out capital punishment to Ansar Ali, Saiful Ali and Amin Ali after finding them guilty under sections 376(d) (gangrape), 302 (murder), 376A (inflicting injury which causes death of a woman) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC. Three others —Emanul Islam, Aminur Islam and Bhola Naskar — were handed life imprisonment following their conviction under sections 376(d) (gangrape), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the IPC.

READ: TMC hails verdict, Oppn see ‘govt involvement’ in acquittals

While one accused, Gopal Naskar, had died in August last year, two others — Rafiqul Islam and Nur Ali — were acquitted by the court owing to lack of evidence against them. The woman’s brother, who was taken away from the packed courtroom after the judgement over security concerns, said, “I am happy…but will go to a higher court and to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the acquittal of the two accused.”

Defence counsels Firoze Edulji and T Ghosh had argued against death sentence for the three, claiming the case “couldn’t be termed a rarest of the rare crime”. They also cited several “similar cases” where different courts, including the Supreme Court, did not award the death sentence.

We have some grievances. We will move to the higher courts- Lawyer of the convicts pic.twitter.com/DsfqvxxVsA — ANI (@ANI_news) January 30, 2016

The prosecution counsel had said “annihilation is what they (convicts) deserve” and that they had showed no repentance.

READ: Kolkata court finds six guilty

The woman was gangraped and killed when she was returning home in Kamduni, about 30 km from Kolkata, in North 24 Parganas district after appearing for an examination at her college on June 7, 2013.

The incident had sparked widespread outrage, and led to demonstrations demanding better safety for women. Soon after, the Chief Minister had visited the woman’s house, but triggered a fresh bout of protests against the government after she alleged that the demonstrators had links with communists and Maoists.

Meanwhile, the Opposition Saturday alleged that two of the accused were acquitted because they are linked to the ruling party.

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