High Court’s split verdict in Kalimpong murder case

Pinak Priya Bhattacharya, TOI, Jul 4, 2024, Jalpaiguri: In the last two and a half years that Krishna Pradhan, a Kalimpong death row convict, has been in a Jalpaiguri jail, he has been served three judicial verdicts bordering on extremes, whether he lives or be hanged to death.

In 2023, a trial court sentenced him to death. 

A review petition in the Calcutta High Court’s Jalpaiguri circuit bench has led to a split verdict on Tuesday, with one judge acquitting him immediately and the other incarcerating him to 30 years behind bars.

Calcutta HC chief justice T S Sivagnanam will now assign a third judge or form a new bench to decide Pradhan’s fate.

The case dates back to Dec, 2021 when an elderly couple, Sambhu Chhetri and Maya Chhetri, was found murdered at their Kalimpong home. 

Their jewellery was also robbed. Autopsy reports indicated they were killed with the same weapon, possibly a khukri. 

On Jan 10, 2022, police arrested Krishna, seized a blood-stained khukri, and some of the stolen jewellery. 

Twenty people, including govt officials, testified in court. In Sep 2023, a Kalimpong sessions court said the brutal and gruesome murder of the elderly helpless couple fell within the “rarest of rare” category and sentenced Krishna to death.

When the matter reached Calcutta High Court division bench of justices Soumen Sen and Partha Sarathi Sen, the judges differed and authored two separate judgments running into 106 pages on Tuesday. 

In the first part of the judgment, Justice Partha Sarathi Sen did not agree with the trial court findings. He pointed out multiple infirmities, both in testimonies and evidence. 

He wrote in the order, “I find so many lacuna …”, adding, “Since the conclusion of a criminal trial is based on the theory of conclusive proof and not on preponderance of probability, I hold that the learned trial court is not justified in coming to a finding that the charge under Section 302 IPC has been proved as against the present appellant (Krishna) beyond reasonable doubt.” 

He set aside the trial court judgment, found Krishna “not guilty” and directed that he “be set at liberty at once”.

In the same judgment, Justice Soumen Sen wrote: “It is well settled that the evidence of witnesses has to be read as a whole and the words and sentences cannot be truncated and read in isolation. 

Minor contradiction and or inconsistencies regarding the recovery of the offending materials is also immaterial,” adding, “In view of my findings that the chain of circumstances establishes the guilt of the appellant and there is absolute certainty about his premeditated act.” 

He also added that the HC “can interfere provided the findings outrageously defy logic or irrational or based on irrelevant, extraneous and unreliable and inadmissible materials,” but in this case, he said, he found none. 

He, however, stated that Krishna has spent over two years and five months in jail, his conduct has been well, he was medically fit, and did not have other criminal antecedents. He wrote, “I set aside the death sentence and commute it to imprisonment for 30 years.” 

But due to the split verdict, the judgment said, “In view of the difference of opinion the matter shall be placed before the Hon’ble Chief Justice for appropriate direction.”