The verdict in the Kamduni gang rape and murder case will be delivered on January 28.

The city sessions court announced the date following the conclusion of the trial on Tuesday.

A college student on her way home to Kamduni village in North 24-Parganas was gang-raped and murdered on June 7, 2013.

Eight men have been charged with murder, gang rape, causing disappearance of evidence, criminal conspiracy and abetment to an offence. If convicted, they could be sentenced to death.

A ninth accused died during the trial.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had visited the victim’s home and promised that “justice” would be delivered in a month.

The CID, which had probed the gang rape and murder, acted in haste and filed an incomplete chargesheet in an attempt to honour Mamata’s promise. A rap from a Barasat court finally prompted the sleuths to amend the chargesheet.

The case was initially heard by the third fast-track court in Barasat but regular protests against the accused by Kamduni residents led to the case being shifted to the city sessions court.

The additional sessions judge in the city sessions court, Sanchita Sarkar, concluded the in-camera trial on Tuesday.
“The verdict will be announced at 2pm on January 28,” defence lawyer Phiroz Edulji said.

“The verdict will finally be announced. I will try to make it to the court that day,” said Mousumi Kayal, a Kamduni resident.

Mousumi, along with Tumpa Kayal, another resident of the village, had tried to draw the chief minister’s attention towards issues related to women’s safety during her visit to Kamduni and were in turn branded “Maoists”.

Boy killed

Subodh Roy, 15, a Class IX student, who was sleeping outside a shanty in Uttarpara, Hooghly, was found dead with a bullet injury on his head on Tuesday morning. Police are clueless about the murder.