United News Of India
Balasore, Jan 30: District and sessions judge Satya Narayan Mishra Friday
convicted a couple in a six-year-old rape and murder case and sentenced them to life
imprisonment.
Convicts Kalandi Das (45) and his wife Labanyamani Das (40), residents of Banapura under Nilagiri block, were found guilty of rape and murder of a 23-year-old girl in Nilagiri.
The judge pronounced the verdict after taking into account the circumstantial evidence and examining 18 witnesses in connection with the case.
According to the prosecution, November 13, 2009, Kalandi, who was in one side love with the victim, raped her in a partially completed temple after dragging her from a water stand post where she had come to fetch water. The accused and his wife then strangulated the girl to death.
The police, on being informed about the incident, found the girl dead and her private parts severally injured. Kalandi was nabbed after three weeks of the ugly incident and the two were in Balasore jail since their arrest December 8, 2009.
The autopsy of the body as well as medical examinations of the couple besides the test report corroborated the crime committed by them.