KOLKATA: The Verdict of capital punishment to the Nirbhaya gangrape accused have brought renewed hopes to Kamduni village in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, where the abduction, gangrape and murder of a 20-year-old girl in 2013 caused massive public outrage that earned it the name 'Bengal's Nirbhaya'.
Some 9 men abducted a college student, who was given the pseudonym 'Aparajita', on her way back from college after writing an exam on June 7, 2013, afternoon. She was taken to a local factory where the accused gangraped her.
The accused brutally assaulted her in a gory manner, slit her throat and disposed her body near a local waterbody. The village burst into protests and handed over the accused to the police. Nirbhaya's mother had called up the victim's mother and asked her to stay together and give moral support to each other.
Due to the ferocity and the 'rarest of rare' nature of the crime, three of the nine accused were awarded capital punishment while the others were given life sentence by the district court, against which the defense prosecutor had appealed in the Calcutta High Court claiming that the CID investigation was biased.
Now, Kamduni hopes that Calcutta High Court will uphold the local court's verdict after the Nirbhaya verdict.
"Our parents still don't sleep well. They still wait for our sister to return and ask how she did in the exam. They need to take sleeping pills. They might get some relief if the accused are given capital punishment," a brother of the victim said.
The family of daily-wage earners has taken a big hit for the expenses of getting justice. "We had to borrow a lot of money to run around to the Calcutta High Court. Only if the lower court's verdict is upheld then will we get justice. But justice is costing a lot. We don't know how long we can pull off like this," he added.
However, locals of Kamduni don't want the girl's death to go in vain. "The Nirbhaya verdict has given us renewed hope. We would not let money be a factor for injustice. We would fight on till justice is delivered. After Nirbhaya, I hope the next justice is ours," said the face of Kamduni protests, housewife Tumpa Kayal.