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West Bengal’s serial ‘chain’ killer sentenced to death in schoolgirl’s rape, murder case

Sarkar, a small-time trader of scrap materials, is being tried in other courts for alleged sexual assault and murder of at least five other women and murderous attacks on at least three other women in Purba Bardhaman and neighbouring Hooghly districts.

West Bengal’s serial ‘chain’ killer sentenced to death in schoolgirl’s rape, murder case

Representational Image (Photo: iStock)

A serial ‘chain’ killer, accused in a series of murders and sexual assaults on women, was found guilty and sentenced to death by a court in Bengal for the rape and killing of a schoolgirl in West Bengal’s Purba Bardhaman district.

Kamaruzzaman Sarkar, accused of strangling his victims with bicycle chains, was sentenced to be hanged to death by the additional district and sessions judge Tapan Kumar Mondal of Kalna court after being found guilty of the rape and murder of the girl. The serial killer who targeted women when they were alone at home, was arrested in June last year.

Sarkar, a small-time trader of scrap materials, is being tried in other courts for alleged sexual assault and murder of at least five other women and murderous attacks on at least three other women in Purba Bardhaman and neighbouring Hooghly districts.

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Sarkar’s lawyer said that an appeal will be filed before the Calcutta High Court, challenging the conviction and sentence, following the court order on Monday.

The 42-year-old serial killer, who would come wearing “trendy clothes”, would then allegedly enter homes of the victims during the afternoon hours on the pretext of taking electricity meter readings and then attacks the women with a cycle chain and an iron rod, according to the prosecution.

Some women had managed to escape the attack by the man, who would try to strangle them with the cycle chain and then hit them on the head repeatedly to ensure they die.

The police said theft was not his main motive, although he would escape with some valuables from the houses of his victims. “Instead, sexually assaulting and murdering the women seemed to be his main motive,” the district police was quoted by news agency PTI as saying.

Police said that Sarkar, who is a married man and has three children, had allegedly even inserted sharp materials into the genitals of some of his victims after killing them.

The district police had circulated CCTV footage of a suspect wearing a red helmet and riding a red motorbike to all police stations, following the murder of a middle-aged woman, due to which he was caught at a police check-point.

According to police, Sarkar is suspected to have killed a woman on January 27 last year.. Then, on April 4, 2019, two women were killed in the same manner within a few hours of each other in the district.

This was followed by the killing of another woman soon after, the police said.

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