The family of the victim in the Kamduni rape and murder case approaches the Supreme Court, expressing serious concerns about the release of certain convicts who they believe present a significant danger to their safety.

Family urging the court to reconsider the release of these convicts and ensure their return to custody.

Advocate Siddesh Shirish Kotwal, filed an application on the behalf of the family, requesting their inclusion as co-appellants in the appeal filed by the Bengal government. 

This appeal pertains to the acquittal of one convict and the reduction of sentences for three other individuals.

Earlier, in October, Calcutta High Court commuted the death sentences of two convicts to life terms and acquitted a third death-row convict. It had reduced the life sentences of three other convicts to seven years, paving the way for their release as they had already spent about 10 years in jail.

“That the accused/ convicts who have been released... must be taken into custody as they are a flight risk and pose a major threat to the family of the victim,” the victim’s brother has said in the application to the Supreme Court.

On October 9, the Supreme Court, including Justices Bhushan Gavai, P.S. Narasimha, and Prashant Mishra, had formally acknowledged and issued notices in response to the appeal filed by the state government. The bench had agreed to examine the state’s plea, moved through standing counsel Astha Sharma, which says the high court had not only “given a complete go-by to the nature of the offence but… unreasonably attach(ed) undue importance to possibility of reformation and rehabilitation of the accused”.

The victim, a 19-year-old college student, was forcibly taken from a rural road, subjected to a brutal gang rape, and tragically murdered on a June afternoon in 2013. This horrific incident occurred near Kamduni, a village located in the vicinity of Calcutta, while she was on her way home from college.