Rajib murder case: Three convicted get life imprisonment

Additional District Judge Prabir Kumar Mishra sentenced the three accused — Mithun Das, Biswanath Chatterjee and Monojit Biswas — to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on each.

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On Thursday, First Additional District judge Prabir Kumar Mishra had convicted the three under Sections 302 (punishment for murder), 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the IPC and Section 25 of the Arms Act.

The quantum of punishment was declared on Friday.

Special Public Prosecutor Shantomoy Bose said, “The court has awarded life sentences to all three as they were booked for murdering a minor. However, we had demanded capital punishment for them since this is one of the rarest of rare cases.”

On Thursday, Rajib’s elder sister Rinku Das had also demanded that the accused be hanged. On Friday, she said: “We are happy that they have been thrown behind bars for their entire lives. We want them to rot in jail. My brother will now rest in peace. Though we expected them to be hanged, the court did not give them capital punishment. We will now appeal to the society to ensure that they never leave the jail.”

While convict Mithun Das claimed before the judge that he was innocent, Monojit Biswas alleged that he had been framed by the CID.

Families of both said they would move a higher court against the order. Following this, Rinku said: “We appeal to all lawyers not to help these men, who mercilessly stabbed my brother. He was innocent and was only trying to protect me from them.”