Guwahati/Agartala, Jan. 19: A day after the Supreme Court commuted the death sentence awarded by the high court to their daughter’s killers, Anima and Bishnu Deb sat calmly in their hut .
But even before journalists flocking there could take out their notepads, Anima spoke out chillingly: “You probably want to know what we feel about it. Let me tell you we really wanted those fiendish killers to be lynched on the streets in public, but since that was not possible, we wanted them to be hanged.”
Their seven-year-old daughter Barnali had been kidnapped, raped and murdered and then dumped in a septic tank by a duo in July 12, 2002.
Bishnu Prasad Sinha, a chowkidar at a Guwahati bus shelter and his accom-plice Putul Bora kidnapped Barnali when she was sleeping at the shelter with her parents.
Barnali’s father, who appeared much more composed, said: “We are uneducated and see life as it affects us. But the honourable judges know far better and more and they have done what they thought best”. He was “disappointed by the judgment, but what can be done; probably it is divine will”.
The difference in reaction was palpable. In February 2005, the couple had been effusive in thanking God and the judiciary after Guwahati High Court upheld the death sentence on Bora and Singh.
Members of the Nirjaton Birodhi Oikya Maancha, the women’s organisation which had spearheaded a movement to bring Barnali’s killers to book, expressed deep surprise at the Supreme Court’s order.
The women’s group was formed within a fortnight of Barnali’s death. A disappointed Anima Guha, president of the organisation, could only say, “Who am I to question the Supreme Court’s verdict?”
Junu Bora, a women’s rights activist, was more vocal.
“Life imprisonment is not enough for those who rape and kill minors. They should be given capital punishment.”
Former chairperson of state women’s commission Meenakhsi Sen who had fought the case on behalf of Barnali’s parents, said: “One cannot possibly criticise the Supreme Court which has considered finer points of law. But heinous killers like Bora and Singh do not deserve to live.”
