INDIA. EIGHT PEOPLE SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDER

September 14, 2005: the Barrackpore Fast Track First Court, India, sentenced eight people to death in connection with the murder of Archideb Bhattacharya, a private tutor and small-time businessman, in the Kharda police station area of North 24 Parganas district. Bhattacharya’s body parts were found in seven separate bags, placed at seven locations near the Barrackpore-Dohla connector of the Kalyani Expressway on October 1, 2003. According to the prosecution, 30-year-old Bhattacharya was murdered for not paying Rs 40,000 extortion money to the accused.
The eight accused — Uttam Das, Panchannan Poddar, Dipak Das, Manoranjan Debnath, Chor Bishnu, Satyajit Sadhu, Ganesh Das and Shymal Ghosh — all aged between 30 and 35 years, were found guilty under Sections 302, 411, 34, 121 and 379 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to be hanged till death.
Bhattacharya was last seen on September 19, 2003. His relatives filed a ‘‘missing persons’’ complaint with the Khardah police station on September 30. His body was found on October 1. (Sources: Express News Service, 14/09/2005)