A sessions court here on Thursday awarded death sentence to Bikash Das for raping two women before murdering them and dumping their bodies in train toilets last year.
Besides holding him guilty for his offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (murder), sessions judge S K Poddar also awarded Das rigorous life imprisonment for offence punishable under 376(1) IPC (rape) and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000.
If he fails to pay the fine, his sentence would continue for another three months, the court said.
The sessions judge on 27 September had let off Das's accomplice due to lack of evidence.
A 21-year-old student of Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, was on 10 July 2018, found lying murdered with a 'gamosa' (an Assamese hand woven towel) tied around her neck in the toilet of an empty coach of Kamakhya Express at Simaluguri Railway Junction.
The next day, on 11 July, the body of a middle-aged woman was recovered from the toilet of a coach meant for physically challenged people of Dibrugarh-Rajasthan Avadh Assam Express.
The woman, too, had a 'gamosa' tied around her neck with blood oozing out of the nose.
Das was nabbed on 12 July from Tinsukia Railway Junction. He confessed to have raped and murdered the two women along with an accomplice.
The RPF and police officers had said that Das was apprehended after a security man noticed him with a ‘gamosa’, similar to the one used for stifling the two victims.
The police had also recovered the mobile phones of the victims from him, a pair of earrings which belonged to the student and an anklet of the middle-aged woman, the officials added.
While pronouncing the verdict, the sessions court said that Das's death sentence, however, is subject to confirmation by the Gauhati High Court, adding that he has been informed about his right to appeal against the judgment in a higher court.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)