Supreme Court upholds life imprisonment of two men for murdering woman on suspicions of witchcraft

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the conviction of two men sentenced to life imprisonment for killing a woman on suspicions that she practiced witchcraft. [Bhaktu Gorain and anr vs State of West Bengal] .A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Pankaj Mithal confirmed their conviction on finding that there was clinching evidence pointing to the guilt of the accused. The Court also noted that there were no gaps in the witness testimony against the accused persons. "We are of the opinion that the trial court had not committed any error in convicting and sentencing the accused persons with imprisonment of life. The conviction and sentence have rightly been affirmed by the High Court," the Supreme Court held..However, the two convicts were given the liberty to file remission applications. The Court added that these applications should be considered in three months, given their long incarceration. Whereas one of the convicts had been in prison for over 15 years, the other had remained in jail for over 11 years, the Court noted. .The incident took place in 1993 in Purulia, West Bengal. As per the prosecution, the two convicts were part of a group of five persons who had gheraoed and assaulted the deceased woman by hitting her on the head, causing her death on the spot.Witnesses had testified that the five men had called her a diayen (witch) who was troubling villagers.Both the trial court and the High Court convicted the accused for the woman's murder, leading to appeals before the Supreme Court. Appeals filed by three of the five convicts were earlier dismissed by the Supreme Court in 2011.The appeals filed by the remaining two convicts have now been dismissed as well by the top court. .Advocate Ranjan Mukherjee appeared for the accused persons/ convicts, Bhaktu Gorain and Bandhu Gorain. Advocate Astha Sharma represented the West Bengal government..[Read judgment]