Agartala: West Tripura District and Sessions Court on Friday convicted four accused persons in connection with the sensational murder case of a bank manager that rocked Tripura in August 2019. The quantum of sentence will be announced on Saturday.
After a prolonged hearing in the case on Friday, the Court found all the four persons accused in the case guilty under Indian Penal Code section 302 (murder) and section 34 (common intention), special public prosecutor of the case Samrat Kar Bhowmik said.
“The Court, however, did not pronounce the sentences for the convicts. We have been informed that the Court will deliver the sentences on Saturday,” Bhowmik said after the Court’s verdict.
Meanwhile, senior advocate and defense lawyer Pijush Biswas hit out at the Court’s judgment and called it a “judicial injustice”. According to Biswas, they will challenge the Court’s ruling in the High Court of Tripura.
On the intervening night of August 3-4 in 2019, Bodhisatta Das (the deceased) was seated at the Jackson gate area of Agartala city along with a friend, when the accused persons started urinating in the open at about 11:30 pm. Das objected to this, leading to a physical scuffle that culminated in his murder.
“The Court has recorded the statements of 56 witnesses during the trial. Among them two witnesses, namely Basu Kar and Dr Abhijit Dasgupta, turned hostile. They stepped back from their initial statements during the trial. We have appealed to the Court to initiate proceedings against them for their act of perjury,” the Special Public Prosecutor said.
He said the Court has examined all the evidence produced before it pertaining to the case and finally convicted the accused persons, identified as Sumit Chowdhury, Sumit Banik, Sukanta Biswas and Omar Sharif alias Soheb Miah. While Sumit Chowdhury is the son of a noted jewelry chain owner, Sukanta Biswas was a policeman.
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Reacting to the judgment, defense lawyer Pijush Biswas said, “We have strong reservations to accept the Court order. This is an illegal order. None of the witnesses in the Court had stated that the deceased was killed by my clients. When a quarrel was underway between the deceased person and my clients, Soheb Miah arrived at the spot with a scooter and stabbed him. There is no evidence that can substantiate common intention. The prosecution could not establish that it was a planned murder and the whole incident was organized.”
He said the judgement will be challenged at the High Court of Tripura. “I hope the judicial injustice meted out to my clients would be addressed by the High Court and the judgment which does not stand on any evidence would be set aside.”
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