Three men were been sentenced to life in prison today in West Bengal's Barasat for fatally stabbing to death a 16-year-old boy who had tried to stop them from harassing his sister. The three sentenced convicts are Mithun Das, Biswanath Chattopadhyay and Monojit Biswas.
On February 14, 2011, Rajib Das, a student of class 10, and his elder sister Rinku were on their way home from Barasat station late at night. Rajib had gone to the station to escort Rinku, who worked in Kolkata, back home.
Some drunken men in the area started harassing Rinku. When Rajib came to his sister's defence, he was thrashed and stabbed by them.
He was stabbed 17 times, the post-mortem report had ascertained.
The incident had caused tremendous outrage, as no one had come forward to help the siblings when Rajib was being attacked. Rinku had run to the gates of the residences of the district magistrate and the superintendent of police, who lived nearby, but the policemen on duty there had refused to help her.
Today, after pronouncement of the sentence, Rinku said her family wanted the death sentence for the men.
"My brother is dead; they have no right to live. I saw them kill my brother with my own eyes," she says.
Her mother Gayatri shares her feelings, "I wanted the death sentence (for them), but I hope they rot in jail. I hope their parents cry like I did. If they go to High Court (to appeal), I hope no lawyer takes up their case. I hope they never see the outside world again."
