A special POCSO court in Jalpaiguri has sentenced three men to death for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl in August 2020.

Rahaman Ali, Jamirul Haque, and Tamirul Haque — all aged between 30 and 35 years — were convicted of killing the girl after allegedly raping her repeatedly for several days.

The sentence was passed by Judge Rintu Sur following the examination of 27 witnesses in the court.

The court, while passing the death sentences, observed that the crime fell under the ‘rarest of the rare’ category.

The case dates back to August 11, 2020, when the 16-year-old student went missing from outside her home. A missing complaint was filed and investigation, led by ASI Debasish Paul, resulted in the arrest of the three accused.   Their confessions led to the discovery of the girl’s partially decomposed body in a septic tank.

“The investigation revealed that the three men had kidnapped the girl, and sexually assaulted her. Fearing of getting caught, they strangled her to death and dumped her body into a septic tank,” a police officer said.

Later, charges including that of rape under the POCSO Act were added. The investigation was then transferred to Inspector Dipojjal Bhowmik, the then Circle Inspector of Sadar, who completed the probe and submitted the chargesheet within the stipulated time frame.

“The verdict, where all three accused were convicted and sentenced to death, is unprecedented in the history of Jalpaiguri district,” Debashish Dutta, government pleader said.

— With PTI Inputs