A day after a special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) court in Kolkata sentenced a convict to death in 79 days for raping a seven-month-old child, Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Kumar Verma on Wednesday heaped praises on the officers for their swift and efficient investigation.
The incident took place on November 30 last year at Burtolla in the northern part of Kolkata. A homeless couple reported about their missing child who was later found on a nearby pavement in the Burtolla police station area.
Kolkata Police identified the suspect using street CCTV footage and arrested him from Jhargram district on December 4. A chargesheet was filed within 28 days and after a 40-day trial, the court delivered the death sentence.
“This is probably the first case when the victim is alive yet capital punishment has been ordered,” said CP Manoj Verma, giving credit to the investigating officer and other members of the special investigation team (SIT) who completed the probe in four weeks.
Further highlighting the efficiency of Kolkata Police, the commissioner noted that investigators used various methods to prove the crime, including gait pattern analysis, matching white marks with the accused's dental impressions, and comparing the accused's DNA profile with DNA recovered from the victim.
Since the RG Kar rape and murder incident, this is the fourth such case in which the state police's swift investigation has led to a speedy trial and capital punishment.
A special POCSO court in Baruipur, South 24 Parganas district, on December 6 last year sentenced the convict to death for the rape and murder of a minor girl in October.
Similarly, a local court in Murshidabad district on December 13 sentenced one convict to death and another to life imprisonment within 61 days of raping and murdering an underage girl. Additionally, in another case in Hooghly's Gurap, the court issued a death sentence within 54 days of the crime on January 17.
The Kolkata police initially handled the RG Kar rape and murder case as well, but the Calcutta High Court transferred it to the CBI due to dissatisfaction with their efforts. Statewide protests further questioned the police’s credibility.
Former Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal, removed amid demands from protesting junior doctors, had claimed a “malicious media campaign” eroded public trust in the police.
In this context, the Burtolla case and three other cases within two months, where efficient police investigations resulted in death sentences, have helped restore the police’s image.
These outcomes also strengthen the state’s argument that if the RG Kar case had stayed with local police, convict Sanjay Roy could have received the death penalty rather than life imprisonment.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee previously suggested the same. “I’m not sure how the lawyers handled the case or what arguments they presented. The case was taken out of our hands deliberately and handed over to the CBI,” she had said.
On Wednesday, C.P. Manoj Verma emphasised the brilliance of Kolkata Police and said that as a professional police, force they will continue to investigate all cases similarly. “We hope we could stand up to the expectations that people have from Kolkata Police.”
