Agartala, March 11: The death sentence against the two persons convicted of raping and killing eight-year-old Agartala girl Barnali Deb in Guwahati three years ago has triggered a campaign for similar punishment to the man accused of committing the same crime on another minor, seven-year-old Puja Dutta, in Tripura that very year.

Though the sentence pronounced by a sessions court in the Barnali case is subject to confirmation by Gauhati High Court, it has already raised hopes for a similar verdict in the other case.

Puja?s parents and several organisations are engaged in a poster campaign to press for capital punishment to her alleged rapist and killer, Samir Bhowmik.

The court of additional district and sessions judge Subhash Bhattacharya yesterday completed the process of recording depositions by witnesses. The judge will interrogate the accused on March 15 and deliver his verdict on a subsequent date.

?I want my daughter?s killer to go to the gallows just like Dhananjoy (Chatterjee) of West Bengal,? said 38-year-old Keshav Dutta, Puja?s father, after coming out of the courtroom.

Dhananjoy was hanged on August 14 last year for raping and killing schoolgirl Hetal Parekh.

On Wednesday, Kamrup district and sessions judge Dilip Kumar Debroy sentenced Bishnu Prasad Singh and Putul Bora to death for the rape and murder of Barnali.

Echoing Puja?s family, the Tripura unit of the BJP today pleaded with the judiciary to pronounce the death sentence against Bhowmik because of the heinous nature of the crime.

?The hands of the honourable judge are tied by the law of the land and we have nothing against it. All we want is death for the perpetrator of this rarest of rare crime,? state BJP general secretary Sudhindra Dasgupta said in a statement.

Shanti Debroy, secretary of the non-governmental organisation Genesis, made a similar plea.

Puja, alias Debjani, was raped and killed on December 11, 2002. The only daughter of Keshav and Asmita Dutta was playing outside their residence when Bhowmik, who had set up a studio in the portion of the house rented out to him by the family, lured her into the darkroom and allegedly committed the crime.

The accused confessed to the police that he strangled the girl after forcing himself on her. Puja?s body was found inside a plywood box at Charilam under Bishalgarh subdivision the next day. The box also contained a piece of the lungi Bhowmik is believed to have been wearing when he committed the crime.

The police had a difficult time preventing a mob attack on the accused immediately after his arrest. The chargesheet against him was filed on October 28 last year.

Responding to a plea from Puja?s parents, chief minister Manik Sarkar directed the law department to appoint senior advocate Dhiraj Guha as special public prosecutor. ?I will definitely make a plea for death sentence against the accused,? Guha said after the hearing yesterday.