The Supreme Court has summoned from the trial court and Calcutta High Court all the original records related to the Kamduni gang-rape-and-murder case, and imposed stringent conditions on the four accused who have been released.

The four accused have been asked to surrender their passports, not leave the area of Rajarhat police station without permission from the station house officer (SHO), and report at the police station regularly.

A 19-year-old student had been gang-raped and murdered outside Kamduni village near Calcutta on the afternoon of June 7, 2013, while returning home from her college.

On October 6 this year, the high court commuted the death sentences of two convicts to life terms and acquitted a third death-row convict. It reduced the life sentences of three others to 7 years, allowing them to walk free since they had already spent about 10 years in jail.

The Bengal government has challenged the verdict while the victim’s brother has sought cancellation of the release of the four accused, saying they are not only a “flight risk” but pose a threat to the safety of the family.

The apex court bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and Prashant Kumar Mishra passed the recent order after hearing senior advocate Sidharth Luthra for the victim’s family, Bengal standing counsel Astha Sharma, senior counsel Gopal Shankarnarayan who represented the state government, and advocate Phiroze Edulji for the accused.

It imposed the following conditions on the four accused who have been released:

• They must not leave the area of Rajarhat police station, under the Bidhannagar police commissionerate, North 24-Parganas, without permission from the Rajarhat SHO.

• They must “furnish their entire itinerary” to the SHO “with regard to the
outgoing and incoming dates of their travel, prior to applying for such permission. On return from the travel, they shall further report to the SHO.”

• They should report at Rajarhat police station on the 1st and 3rd Monday and Friday of every month.

• They must surrender their passports, if any.

• They must keep the Rajarhat SHO updated about their address or any change of address.

• If the respondents have been using mobile phones, their details must be furnished to the SHO.

“The registry is directed to call for the original records from the courts below,” Justice Gavai said in the recent order.

The state government has pleaded that the high court bench of Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Ajay Kumar Gupta had not only “given a complete go-by to the nature of the offence but have proceeded to unreasonably attach undue importance to possibility of reformation and rehabilitation of the accused persons”.