Even after ten long years, the victim of the gruesome Kamduni rape case has not received justice in the truest sense. On October 6, 2023, the Calcutta High Court commuted some of the accused’s life death sentences to life imprisonment and acquitted one of the convicts in the 2013 rape case.
The bench comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Ajay Kumar Gupta commuted the death sentences of Saiful Ali and Ansar Ali to life imprisonment and acquitted Amin Ali, who faced the death penalty as well, citing a lack of evidence.
The heart-wrenching details of atrocities meted out to the girl
The horrific crime dates back to 7th June 2013 when a 20-year-old Bachelor of Arts second-year student at Derozio Memorial College, the first person from her family to attend a college was gang-raped in Kamduni village in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. On the evening of June 7, ten years ago, the accused raped and murdered her as she was coming from her college after sitting an exam. After raping the girl, Saiful Ali, Ansar Ali, and seven others implicated in the crime tore her legs apart to her navel. The perpetrators slit the victim’s throat before discarding her mutilated body on a nearby plot in Rajarhat. Notably, Ansar Ali was the caretaker of the plot where the semi-naked body of the victim was found by her brother and local villagers the next day.
The deceased victim’s brother had said that after he returned to Kamduni, he came across accused Ansar Ali and had heard accused Saiful Ali telling Ansar that they had a “great time” and should return to their homes. Moreover, before finding his sister, the victim’s brother had also noticed six of the accused persons behaving “suspiciously” near the said plot.
Eventually, the locals spotted blood on the floor and the body of a semi-naked girl lying behind the plot’s boundary wall after entering a structure on the land.
A 20-year-old girl was taught a ‘lesson’ for ignoring the perpetrators
Subsequently, the police were notified, and the case was later turned over to the CID, who charged eight people based on evidence obtained from semen and blood samples, as well as other DNA material on their clothing, as well as witness statements who testified to hearing the accused discussing the need to “teach the victim a lesson” as she was not paying ‘attention’ to them.
The outrage and demand for justice for ‘Aparajita’
The brutal gangrape and murder of the Kamduni girl, who was later given the name “Aparajita” (undefeated), reminds one of the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape case that shook the conscience of the entire nation and sparked countrywide protests. Much like the Nirbhaya case, protests erupted in West Bengal and several other regions of the country as the horrifying details of the brutalities against Aparajita emerged. Many human rights and social justice organisations including Kamduni Pratibadi Manch came forward to seek justice for Aparajita.
It was reported back then that several agitated villagers had clashed with the police when the cops arrived to take the victim’s body for postmortem and had damaged three police vehicles.
Aparajita’s friend Tumpa Koyal had then emerged as a prominent leader of the protests who had raised questions before Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and advised her that instead of speaking, she should listen to the protesting villagers. The villagers were agitated over the chief minister arriving in Kamduni village ten days after the crime took place.
Mousumi Koyal and Tumpa Koyal became the faces of a movement unprecedented in Bengal’s recent history. They brought members of the victim’s family to Delhi to meet with the then President Pranab Mukherjee in order to seek justice. People took to the streets in Kolkata and its surrounding districts. A Bengali film titled ‘Din Bodoler Pala’ was made based on the events of the Kamduni rape case.
In September 2013, a local court had allowed the framing of charges against the nine accused. Back then, 11 of the villagers protesting outside the court demanding CBI enquiry in the case were arrested.
Jayanta Narayan Chatterjee, the lawyer appearing for the victim had in 2014 filed a complaint alleging that he had received threat calls and messages. This came after he appeared in the court against the Mamata Banerjee-led government in the Kamduni case.
In March this year, Tumpa had said that over the years she has been intimidated by powerful politicians who want to protect the accused persons. She had alleged that a bomb was hurled at her residence in New Town by some “party men”.
While four of the convicts in the Nirbhaya rape case were hanged to death in 2020, seven years later, the Kamduni girl still awaits justice.
The 2016 verdict
On 30 January 2016, a sessions court in Kolkata sentenced three of the convicts to death while three others were awarded life imprisonment. Recognising that the case was among the rarest of rare cases, Additional District and Sessions Judge Sanchita Sarkar sentenced Saiful Ali, Ansar Ali, and Amin Ali to death for gang rape and murder.
Sheikh Emanul Islam, Aminul Islam, and Bhola Naskar were sentenced to life in jail after being convicted of gang rape, criminal conspiracy, and inducing the disappearance of evidence. One of the accused Gopal Naskar had died during trial. Emotions ran high for the family members of the victim as the court verdict came out, however, they were opposed to the court’s decision to acquit two of the accused named Rafiqul Islam Gaji and Nur Ali due to lack of evidence.
At that time it was alleged that the TMC government was behind the acquittal of the Rafiqul Islam and Nur Ali since they allegedly had links with the party. While left front chairman Biman Bose had alleged that the charges against the acquitted persons were deliberately weakened since they had links to the ruling TMC, CPI leader Mohammed Salim had asserted that the investigating officers failed to produce concrete evidence before the court against Rafiqul Islam and Nur Ali.
What now?
Following the verdict on Friday, 6th October, Mousumi and Tumpa Koyal broke into tears outside the high court. Their agony over the “failure” to provide justice to Aparajita and their struggle over the years apparently going in vain shakes one to the core.
#Thread#Kamduni gangrape and murder case, where a Hindu girl was gangraped and murdered.
— Hindu Voice (@HinduVoice_in) October 6, 2023
Today Calcutta HC changed the judgement of lower court.
“Public prosecutor is sold to money. Of those who were sentenced to death, one was acquitted and two were sentenced to imprisonment+ pic.twitter.com/I7ADTJllwY
Despite the disappointment Mousumi and Tumpa are undeterred in their resolve to ensure justice for the friend they lost a decade back. The victim’s brother also told the media that they will be moving the Supreme Court against the Friday verdict.
While lawyers questioned the CID’s charge sheet, Mousumi Koyal stated, “The state government failed to ensure justice.” This will not be tolerated. We will file a petition with the Supreme Court to challenge this order,” stated the victim’s brother.
Where does the society stand?
Justice for women will never be really secured unless the people of the country, regardless of political party or socio-cultural viewpoints, stand up for victims of sexual assault. A distinctive aspect of the Kamduni judgement is that, while the nation was outraged at the Manipur incident wherein two women were stripped naked, paraded, and raped by a group of men, the same nation that marched in mass protests demanding justice for Nirbhaya remains silent on Aparajita. It is the same mentality that prevents people from speaking out for women who have been raped in a state run by the political party they support but goes berserk when similar atrocities occur in a state ruled by the political party they despise.
