Agartala, June 16: Tripura jail minister Pranab Debbarma today opposed ?in principle? the death sentence handed to rapist-murderer Samir Bhowmik by the Agartala district and sessions court on June 3. The Gauhati High Court yesterday stayed the death sentence and ordered the sessions court to submit documents relating to the case for its review.

The minister today visited the Agartala central jail, where Bhowmik is confined in a makeshift condemned cell for rape and murder of seven-year-old Debjani alias Puja Dutta on December 11, 2002.

Expressing his views to the media on the issue, Debbarma said the system of capital punishment was incorporated in the Indian Penal Code by the British government and it has been continuing since. ?I am not taking a lenient view of the heinous crime. But what I wish to emphasise is that if the purpose behind giving punishment is rectification, a death sentence nullifies it,? Debbarma said.

He said there was no proper cell in the jail, but a makeshift one was created after the death sentence was awarded to Bhowmik.

Should the high court later uphold the sessions court verdict, the minister said there was no infrastructure for carrying out the death sentence. ?To create this facility, we will have to seek central assistance and appoint a hangman,? Debbarma said.

?So far five death sentences have been pronounced in Tripura over the past 50 years, but four got commuted to life imprisonment in the high court,? Debbarma said, adding that in only one case serial killer Lal Mia had to be executed in Ranchi jail in 1956.

The minister also indicated that in case the death sentence on Bhowmik was upheld in higher courts and if his mercy petition to the President also fell through, the state government might prefer to have the sentence carried out in West Bengal or Bihar.