Sessions court judge A. Chakravarty pronounced the quantum of punishment for the three accused. The court had on July 30 convicted the three accused after founding them guilty of committing offences punishable under sections 120-B, 302 and 201 the Indian Penal Code.
The court further observed that the parents of the deceased must have undergone unbearable pain and suffering for the brutal murder of their exceptionally brilliant daughter and directed the Secretary, District Legal Services Authority, Kamrup (M), to pay compensation to them under the Victim Compensation Scheme formulated by the state government for such cases.
It may be recalled here that the victim, Sweta Agarwal, was a brilliant student who stood first in the higher secondary examination (commerce stream), conducted by the Assam Higher Secondary Education Council in 2015.
The court after listening to the arguments and examining the witnesses also observed that the prosecution has succeeded in bringing home the charges under sections 120-B, 302, 201 of the IPC against the accused.
Sweta had gone to her college, K.C. Das Commerce College, on December 4, 2017 for some examination and never returned. Her mobile phone was also found switched off. However, at around 5.30 p.m., her uncle Jagadish Agarwal received a phone call from an unknown lady, who told him that Sweta was lying dead in naked condition in their house with burn injuries.
Jagadish Agarwal then went to the said lady's house and saw the body of Sweta lying with burn injuries. At that time, the accused Gobind Singhal, Kamala Devi Singhal and Bhabani Singhal were present in their house.
The main accused Govind later confessed that he and Shweta had a heated argument over their relationship on that fateful day. He banged Shweta's head out of anger against the wall, which eventually led to her death. His mother and sister too allegedly helped him in the cover-up exercise.
Govind also confessed that he tried to dump the body by putting it in a gunny bag and dumping it in a garbage bin but later on the advice of his mother and sister, he took the body back home and burnt it so that it looked like a suicide.
( With inputs from IANS )