INDIA: EIGHT SENTENCED TO DEATH IN WEST BENGAL FOR MURDER OF COLLEGE STUDENT

April 19, 2016: As many as eight people were sentenced to death in West Bengal for the murder of college student Saurabh Chowdhury in 2014.
A Barasat court pronounced eight – Shyamal Karmakar, Suman Sarkar, Suman Das, Amal Barui, Tapas Biswas, Ratan Samaddar, Tarak Das and Somnath Sardar.
Another accused, Rakesh Burman was given life imprisonment by the court.
Besides them, three other accused – Ratan Das, Palli Maity and Sisir Mukherjee were sentenced to a term of five years in jail.
While announcing the quantum of punishment, the judge termed this case as ‘rarest of rare’.
Last week, on April 15, the court heard the case after the trial was over and held eight of them guilty of murdering the second-year student.
Meanwhile, the parents and other family members of Chowdhury welcomed the court’s judgement. “We demanded death sentence for all of them, but we are happy that the court pronounced eight of them guilty and sentenced them to death. We are thankful to the police and the judiciary. Finally, justice has been served to my son,” said Chowdhury’s mother.
On July 4, 2014, Chowdhury went missing from his residence and a day after, his dead body was found mutilated near the rail lines between Barasat and Dattapukur.
He was abducted and later murdered by the accused after he protested against the illegal liquor business and drug dens in Bamangachi. (Sources: dnaindia.com, 19/04/2016)