Kamduni victim’s kin urge CM Suvendu Adhikari to reopen 2013 case file

Kolkata, July 15 (IANS) The Kamduni victim’s family and friends on Wednesday approached Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari with a request to reopen the Kamduni case file. Moushumi Kayal and Tumpa Kayal, who have been vocal in demanding justice since the beginning of the incident, met Adhikari on Wednesday with their demand.

It is worth noting that after the political changes in the state, the current BJP government has started the ‘Janata Darbar’. This special programme is aimed at directly listening to the grievances and problems of the common people and finding solutions to them. As a rule, this Darbar is held on a specific day every week at the state BJP office in the Salt Lake area of Kolkata. Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari himself is present there and interacts with the common people.

The family of the Kamduni victim and two well-known faces of the protest movement in the case, Tumpa Kayal and Moushumi Kayal, appeared at the BJP state office on Wednesday. They had a file in their hands on which was written ‘Kamduni Case File’. Later, they met the Chief Minister and requested that the Kamduni case file be reopened. It is learnt that they have been assured of getting justice in the matter.

The victim’s friends, Moushumi Kayal and Tumpa Kayal, spoke to the media. Moushumi Kayal said, “During the previous government, the convicts were sentenced to be hanged by the fast-track court. But the convicts were released. Today, we have appeared before the public court demanding that the Kamduni file be reopened. Let us get justice again because the previous government did not give us justice. So, the victim’s family, Tumpa Kayal, I and all of us have come before the public court with a request to get justice.”

Tumpa Kayal said, “We have many demands. We will appeal to our Chief Minister as much as we can because we have complete trust in the Chief Minister. He announced in Baruipur that he will provide legal assistance in the Kamduni case and will reopen the Kamduni case with a government lawyer. The previous government had transferred 14 public prosecutors to acquit the Kamduni convicts. Those convicts should be given exemplary punishment. We have come to the Chief Minister today with this request.”

On June 7, 2013, a young woman in her twenties, a resident of Kamduni in North 24 Parganas district, was gang-raped and murdered. In 2016, the City Sessions Court sentenced two of the six accused to death and four to life imprisonment. Later, the Calcutta High Court reduced the sentences of all of them. In its verdict delivered on October 6, 2023, the Calcutta High Court reduced the death sentences of the two convicts, Saiful Ali and Ansar Ali, to life imprisonment.

On the other hand, the lower court had sentenced Amin Ali, Aminul Islam, Bhola Naskar and Enamul Haque to life imprisonment. The High Court reduced their sentence to seven years. The High Court also granted them bail on a bond of Rs 10,000 as they had spent 10 years in jail. However, the state government later approached the Supreme Court challenging the High Court’s verdict.

–IANS

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