Calcutta High Court Commutes Death Sentences to 60-Year Terms in Jhargram Child Rape-Murder Case

The decision reflects a judgment that the case falls short of India’s rarest-of-rare threshold due to evidence of possible convict reformation

Overview

On July 23, 2025, a Division Bench headed by Justices Debangsu Basak and Md. Shabbar Rashidi formally commuted the convicts’ death sentences to life terms with no remission for 60 years.
The bench upheld the 2024 convictions of Fagun Mandi alias Pui and Rabindra Routh alias Bhaku under IPC sections 376DB, 302, 201, 363, 365 and Section 6 of the POCSO Act for gang rape, murder, kidnapping and evidence destruction.
Court records cited state submissions on the perpetrators’ socially backward backgrounds, limited education and slow-learner status to support their potential for rehabilitation.
Investigators established guilt in the 2021 abduction, gang rape and murder of a five-year-old girl through circumstantial evidence and convict disclosures that led to recovering her body, a chocolate wrapper, a burnt biri stub, a bamboo stick and a locket bearing her photograph.
The High Court directed correctional authorities to update prison records to reflect the new life-sentence terms without remission.