High Court upholds life sentence of two ‘maoists’ in 2012 Belpahari murder case

Soumyadip Mullick, MP, 19 Jan 2025, Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court has upheld the life sentence of two maoists for murdering a Trinamool Congress supporter’s son in 2012 in the dead of night in Jhargram’s Belpahari. 

The bench of Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Gaurang Kanth was moved by three of the accused, challenging the trial court order and judgement giving them life sentences among other sentences. 

On 26 May, 2012 a group of maoists attacked the house of one Sudhir Saha in the dead of night. One of the accused, Bikash Murmu, asked him to come out of his house, saying another accused, 

Haren, later proved to be the mastermind, had sent him. Sudhir didn’t come out. Miscreants started breaking the tile shed of his house. Fearing for his life, Sudhir jumped from the first floor of the pucca building and broke his waist. 

His son Shyamal came out hearing his cry. He was asked to open the door and give some water. 

The accused persons murdered him with an axe since they couldn’t find Sudhir. Bikash’s counsel challenged the registration of the FIR, arguing that the wife and another witness stated they went to the police station to register it whereas the investigating officer claimed the written complaint was received at the spot by the IC and forwarded to the police station. Counsel for other two accused Haren Murmu and Sushanta Sardar submitted none of them were present at the spot. 

On the FIR issue, the court observed that promptitude in lodging the complaint rules out the possibility of substitution or manufacture of a new complaint as argued by the defence. The court observed the narration by eyewitnesses “depicts the chilling violence unleashed by an extremist group on a hapless family”. 

The wife was able to name the appellants and specifically disclosed their roles in the murder. Due to credible evidence against them, the court upheld the conviction and sentence of Bikash and Haren. Sushanta was acquitted due to lack of evidence putting him at crime spot and revealing shared common intention to commit murder. 

https://www.millenniumpost.in/big-stories/court-to-pronounce-sanjoy-roys-sentence-today-victims-parents-seek-death-penalty-595497