Hindustan Times ST (Jaipur)

Court sentences man 13 days after the crime

- Halim Mondal letters@hindustant­imes.com

West Bengal court has sentenced a man to 10 years in prison for sexual assault on a three-year-old, a mere 13 days after the crime and nine days after the police submitted the charge sheet.

Additional district judge II of Krishnanag­ar, Manas Basu on Friday pronounced 40-year-old Tapash Majumdar, a daily wage labourer, guilty of sexually assaulting the child on February 25. The convict also has to pay a fine of ~10,000. If Majumdar fails to pay the fine, he would have to spend another six months inside the jail.

The court in Nadia district bettered the record of another court in the same district which had, in December 2016, sentenced a 50-year-old man, a barber by profession, for sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl to five years in prison in just 15 days after the crime.

“This is a remarkable achievemen­t by the court. I have never heard of justice being dispensed faster in any court. A total of 15 witnesses deposed,” said public prosecutor Nasiruddin Ahmed.

“The investigat­ing officers did a splendid job. The role of the judiciary was laudable,” said Santosh Pandey, superinten­dent of police of the district.

The crime took place in Purba Sonatala village under Nakashipar­a police station in Nadia district on the evening of February 25, when the parents took the child and went to attend the puja and house warming party of a neighbour.

Majumdar slipped to a spot behind the house carrying the child in his lap and inserted his fingers inside her private parts.

Hearing the child’s cries, invitees ran out and caught him. Majumdar was handed over to the police and a complaint was lodged that night.

The police charged him with IPC section 376 (rape) and section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

The police submitted the charge sheet on February 28.

The judge also directed the district magistrate to arrange for paying ~3 lakh compensati­on to the family of the child as per the existing scheme of the government.

KRISHNAGAR:A TAPASH MAJUMDAR WAS SENTENCED TO 10 YEARS IN PRISON AND FINED ~10,000 FOR RAPING THE CHILD ON FEBRUARY 25

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