Agartala, June 1: An uneasy wait precedes the pronouncement of sentence in the Debjani Dutta rape and murder case on Friday.

Last Friday, Samir Bhowmik had been found guilty of raping and murdering seven-year-old Puja alias Debjani Dutta on December 11, 2002 in his studio at Charilam under Sections 302 (murder), 376 (rape) and 201 (deliberate suppression of evidence). The final verdict was to be announced on Monday, but it was postponed till Friday as additional district and sessions judge Subhash Bhattacharya sought proof of Samir?s age from his school and a medical examination report on age in response to the pleas made by lawyers of the defence and prosecution.

In compliance with the order, experts at the G.B. Hospital here have conducted a radiological test on Samir. ?The report will be submitted to the court in a sealed envelope,? said Dr Sukumar Debnath, superintendent of G.B. Hospital.

Bhagyalaxmi Das, headmistress of Charilam Higher Secondary School where Samir studied from Class I to IX, will also appear in court with the school?s admission register and other relevant records on Friday. ?We are ready with the records,? she said from Charilam over phone.

Special public prosecutor Dhiraj Guha had sought proof of Samir?s age on Monday after advocate Arun Chandra Bhowmik, defending Samir, said that Samir was below 18 years of age at the time of commission of the crime and should be treated as a juvenile.

?We had submitted an age proof certificate issued by Charilam Higher Secondary School showing that Samir?s date of birth as recorded in the school is February 20, 1982. When he raped and murdered Puja on December 11, 2002, he was 21 years old,? Guha said, adding that the court had earlier agreed to verify the age at an ?appropriate time?.