KUPWARA: Four persons were on Friday sentenced to death by a sessions court in Kupwara for the gangrape and murder of a 13-year-old girl eight years ago while she was returning from school. The gory incident had shaken the nation’s conscience and had led to widespread protests.
Terming it as a rarest of rare case, Principal District and Sessions Judge Kupwara Mohammad Ibrahim Wani awarded the death penalty to convicts Sadiq Mir, Azhar Ahmad Mir, both residents of Langate in Kupwara, Jahangir Mochi of West Bengal and Suresh Kumar of Rajasthan, who had gangraped the child and slit her throat, before burying her.
Death reference is accepted. Death sentence awarded by the trial court is affirmed. The appeals of the convicts are dismissed, the judge said.
Stating that convicts should be hanged till death, the court in its judgment said that there is no scope for sympathy for their barbaric crime and pressed that some crimes are so outrageous that the society also demands strict punishment.
Emotional scenes were witnessed in the court as relatives of the victim broke down when the judge read out the verdict against the four for gangraping and murdering the class 8th student on June 27, 2007.
They shouted Judge Sahab Zindabad and Allahu Akbar after hearing the verdict. The slogans were also raised by residents in Tabindas native Batpora, reports said.
“It was a Friday when she was killed and it is on Friday when our wounds have been healed. Justice has been done,” an uncle of the victim said.
The parents of the victim were also present in the court. We have full faith in the judiciary. We had expected this verdict. But the ultimate satisfaction will be when the convicts meet their ultimate fate, father of victim told the media outside court room after the verdict was delivered.
Hume pura nyai tabhi milega jab sab faansi par latkaye jayangay (We will get justice only when all of them will be hanged), he said.
Senior Public Prosecutor Ghulam Muhammad Shah, who sought death penalty for all four convicts, terming it a rarest of rare case, said 88 witnesses had recorded their statements during the seven-year-long trial in the case.
It was a strong and proven case and I am hopeful that even High Court will confirm the conviction in case the convicts approach it he said.
For confirmation of the conviction, the court of Principal and District Sessions Judge Kupwara will send a copy to State High Court. The Convicts have three months time to appeal before the High Court.
I am sure and hopeful that the High Court will confirm the conviction and the convicts will be hanged till death in the coming three months, the Public Prosecutor said.
A standard 8 student of Uqab English Medium School, Langate, Tabinda was found dead, with her throat slit, in an orchard outside her village on July 20, 2007.
Later, medical reports confirmed rape before murder.
A case FIR No. 152/2007 U/S 302, 376 and 34 RPC was registered and after investigation, police filed charge sheet against the accused.
Mirwaiz hails judgment
Srinagar: Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has commended the judgment in Tabinda Gani case and expressed hope that all the steps to execute the judgment would be followed speedily so that it can help in weeding out such heinous and gruesome crimes from our society.
In a statement, Mirwaiz described the judgment though late but right.
Mirwaiz said though it took a lot of time and justice loving people, especially the family members of the victims had to bear enormous mental pain throughout this period. However, he said the verdict would prove very helpful to put an end to such inhuman crimes in Kashmir.
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