A court in Ranaghat on Monday found a Trinamool Congress leader, his son, and seven others guilty in the case of the gang rape and death of a schoolgirl in Hanshkhali, Nadia, which occurred in April 2022.
The CBI investigated the case following a Calcutta High Court order. The court will pronounce the sentence on Tuesday.
The nine convicted are Trinamool leader Samarendra Gayali, his son Brajagopal aka Sohail and seven others — Prabhakar Samaddar, Ranjit Mullick, Surajit Roy, Akash Baroi, Dipta Gayali, Pijush Kanti Bhakta, and Anshuman Bagchi.
They were pronounced guilty under various sections of the BNSS related to gang rape, criminal conspiracy, criminal intimidation, destruction and suppression of evidence, along with Section 6 of the Pocso Act.
According to the prosecution, on April 4, 2022, the minor girl attended a birthday party organised for Brajagopal, where she was gang-raped. She returned home bleeding profusely and died the next day.
Her parents said that they were prevented by those convicted from taking her to a hospital. Her body was forcibly taken away and cremated locally without a post-mortem. She did not even get a death certificate.
