Guwahati, Aug. 31: Gauhati High Court today upheld the death sentence on the two accused in the Barnali Deb rape and murder case, describing the crime as “extremely brutal, grotesque, diabolic, revolting and dastardly”.

The two-member bench of Justices D. Biswas and P.G. Agarwal passed the ruling following an appeal by the two accused ? Bishnu Prasad Sinha and Putul Bora ? challenging the death sentence awarded to them by the sessions court, Kamrup.

In a 20-page judgment, the high court said: “This is one of the rarest of rare cases where no sentence except the sentence of death will meet the ends of justice.” Altogether 29 witnesses were examined by the prosecution, including the official ones.

Eight-year-old Barnali was raped inside a travel agency’s office here on the night of July 12, 2002, and her body was thrown into a septic tank.

Sessions judge Dilip Kumar Debroy had awarded the death sentence to the duo in March this year.

Upholding the session court’s verdict, the two-member bench observed: “We find that the victim was an innocent and helpless child of 8 or 9 years and she was raped and killed in an extremely brutal, grotesque, diabolic, revolting and dastardly manner and this has resulted in intense and extreme indignation of society as a whole.”