Ten men were awarded capital punishment on Friday for the death of a 42-year-old homemaker, Chandana Das, who was pushed off the third-floor balcony of her house in Kanchrapara while the gang was on a looting spree.
The judge of the fast-track third court in Barrackpore, where the trial was held, did not read out the punishment for two other convicts as they are absconding.
The duo — Ganpat Ram and Balbir Singh — fled after the police van in which they were being brought to the court met with an accident on December 29. Three accused were earlier acquitted for lack of evidence against them.
Those who have been sentenced to death are Surya Goldar, Babar Ali, Ratan Tarai, Srikanto Dey, Shishu Pal, Prem Pal, Babulal Singh, Bhagwan Singh, Banwari Singh and Satish Gautam.
Judge Partha Mukherjee said: “The convicts deserve capital punishment as they had committed a cold-blooded murder.”
The police probe had nailed Ganpat, Bhagwan and Banwari as the ones who pushed Chandana off the balcony early on February 21, 2008.
The family of four — Chandana, husband Bimal and their children Barsha, 15, and Bidyut, 11 — were on the third floor of the house when the gang struck around 2.45am.
Bimal’s jewellery shop was on the ground floor and the two floors in between were under repair. While the criminals were cleaning out the house, Chandana rushed to the balcony in an attempt to alert neighbours.
There she was cornered by a few goons who threw her off the balcony after failing to drag her in. The dacoits continued with their looting spree — the household was left poorer by Rs 20 lakh in cash and jewellery — and by the time they left, Chandana had bled to death.
The sleuths made their first breakthrough four days later when they picked up Goldar from Nadia’s Chakdah. Goldar’s interrogation led to the arrest of the others from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. “Goldar, Dey and Tarai were the local contacts of the gang. The other members were from Rajasthan, Bihar and UP,” said an officer.
nCouple dead: Mani Bhattacharya, 45, who worked in a ceramic factory and his wife Mala, 38, were found dead in their Sodepur home on Friday.
