J&K court sentences four to death for raping and murdering 8th class student

Srinagar: A court in Jammu and Kashmir's frontier town of Kupwara on Friday awarded death penalty to the four persons convicted earlier in a case of rape and murder of a 14-year-old student.

The victim Tabinda Gani, a class 8 student, was found dead in an apple orchard in Langate area of Kupwara on July 20, 2007. Her uncle Muhamamd Iqbal said, "We are quite happy at the verdict. Finally justice has been delivered and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our long wait for the justice is over." His brother and father of the rape and murder victim, Abdul Gani Shah, added, "Tabinda, my sweet heart, has received justice. I can see her smiling yet tears in her eyes from the Heaven”.

The Sessions Court Kupwara had earlier this week reserved its judgment on quantum of punishment to the convicts, Azhar Ahmed Mir, Muhammad Sadiq Mir alias Saada Choor, both residents of Langate, and two non-locals Jehangir alias Jehangir Behari of West Bengal and Suresh Kumar alias Suresh Moochi of Rajasthan. All the four accused of commiting the horrile crime on the student after kidnapping her while returning from school eight years ago were convicted by the court on April 18 after finding them guilty of the offences of murder (302 RPC), gang rape (376(G)), kidnapping with intention to kill (364 RPC) and crime done with common intention (34 RPC).”

Medical reports had confirmed that the abductors before slitting her throat had raped Tabinda.

A report from Langaet, 68-km northwest of here, said that sweets were distributed and slogans chanted by jubilant crowds of people in the victim's native village Batapora when the news about the court verdict reached there. Earlier slogans like “Allah-o-Akbar”, “Jub tak sooraj chand rahayga Tabinda tera Naam rehay ga” and “Sessions judge Kupwara Zindabaad” had reverberated the court complex.