Kolkata, Feb 17 (IANS): A special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) court in Kolkata on Monday convicted the accused in the rape of a seven-month-old girl in Kolkata in November last year.

The Pocso court judge will pronounce the sentence on Rajiv Ghosh, 34, on Tuesday. The public prosecutor has sought capital punishment.

The conviction came within three months of the crime on November 30, 2024. The police started the investigation and filed the charge sheet in the matter within 26 days from the date of the crime.

The victim went missing from a roadside shanty located in the Burtolla area in north Kolkata. The victim’s parents immediately informed the police and soon the victim girl was traced from a footpath nearby.

A medical examination confirmed the rape. The police, on the basis of the CCTV footage, identified Ghosh and he was arrested from Gopiballavpur in Jhargram district on December 4 last year. Investigation proved that he silently kidnapped the sleeping victim from the shanty that night and subsequently raped her.

He was booked under Section 137 (2) (punishment for kidnapping), Section 65 (2) (punishment for rape of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 6 (punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the Pocso Act, 2012.

West Bengal had been in the negative headlines during the last six months for various reported cases of rape and rape & murder and in many cases, the victim was a minor.

The most talked about case on this count was the ghastly rape & murder of a ghastly of a woman junior doctor of the state-run- R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata in August last year.

However, in this particular case in the Burtolla area, civil society and people were in a state of shock considering that the victim was just seven months old.