Calcutta High Court acquits 3 people on death row for woman's murder

The Calcutta High Court on Thursday set aside the conviction and death penalty awarded to three persons accused of killing a woman and dismembering her body [Surajit Deb v State of West Bengal]. 

A Division Bench of Debangsu Basak and Md Shabbar Rashidi said that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt against the three accused - the deceased woman’s husband and two others. 

“We therefore, set aside the impugned judgment of conviction and the consequential order of sentence. Death sentence awarded to the appellants, cannot, therefore, be sustained even, less to talk of its confirmation. Accordingly, the appellants are hereby acquitted of all the charges framed against them,” the Court ordered. 

Surajit Deb, Lipika Poddar and Sanjay Biswas were arrested by the police in 2014 on allegations of the murder of a woman named Jayanti Deb. The body was discovered at Sealdah Police Station with the torso in a suitcase, and the head and limbs in separate bags. 

The police arrested Jayanti’s husband, Surajit Deb. It was stated that the two had separated several years ago and he had started to live with Lipika Poddar in a separate flat. The police alleged that Surajit and Lipika murdered Jayanti and then got Sanjay to dismember the body. 

All three accused were convicted by the trial court in 2019 and sentenced to death. 

The High Court disagreed with the trial court’s findings, noting that there was no evidence associating the accused with the murder of the victim. 

“Their presence at the scene of crime at the relevant time has not been proved convincingly,” it added. 

Therefore, it acquitted them. 

Senior Advocates Jayanta Narayan Chatterjee and Kallol Mondal along with advocates Moumita Pandit, Supreem Naskar, Jayashree Patra, Pritha Sinha, Krishan Ray, Anamitra Banerjee, Akbar Laskar, Isita Kundu, Malay Bhattacharya and Subhrajyoti Ghosh appeared for the accused.

State of West Bengal was represented by Public Prosecutor Debasish Roy and advocates Partha Pratim Das and Manasi Roy. 

[Read Judgment]