Attempt-to-murder case: TMC’s Kakali Gupta gets 3 years’ jail, dozen other party leaders get 10 years each
The case dates to September 2017 when a local TMC leader, Debu Pal, was stabbed and beaten with sticks and rods near his house at Daspara.
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TMC leader Kakali Gupta sentenced to three years’ imprisonment in connection with the 2017 attack case in West Bengal. (Photo: X/Kakali Tah Gupta)A fast-track court in Purba Bardhaman district on Friday evening ordered jail sentence to 13 TMC leaders and party workers, including the chairperson of Burdwan Development Authority (BDA), after convicting them in an eight-year-old murder attempt case.
While BDA chairperson Kakali Ta Gupta has been sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000, the others, including Bardhaman-1 block TMC youth president Manas Bhattacharya, and TMC leaders Kartik Bagh and Sheikh Jamal, have been sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment.
Except Gupta, who is admitted to a local hospital after she fell ill on Tuesday when the court ordered the conviction in the case, the rest were sent to jail.
The case dates to September 2017 when a local TMC leader, Debu Pal, was stabbed and beaten with sticks and rods near his house at Daspara. Debu Pal, who suffered grievous injuries and lost vision in his one, survived.
On Tuesday, the court convicted the 13 local TMC leaders and party workers under IPC sections 326 (punishment for voluntarily causing grievous hurt using dangerous weapons), and 307 (attempted murder). The same day, Kakali, Manas, Kartik and Jamal reportedly “fell ill” on the way to the court, thereby delaying the sentencing. Except Kakali, the others were later discharged by the hospital and sent to judicial custody.
Before their sentencing on Friday evening, judge Arvind Mishra spoke to Kakali Ta Gupta through videoconference.
Explaining the disparity in sentences between Gupta and the other 12 convicts, the court stated that the reduced punishment for the BDA chairperson was pronounced in view of the critical diseases she was afflicted with.
After the court’s order, the son of Debu Pal, Jiban, who is currently a panchayat member, said: “We are not happy as my father was seriously injured in the attack… But this incident proved that during the rule of Mamata Banerjee, criminals are not spared even they are from ruling TMC.”
PTI Adds: The court, in its verdict, slammed the police for the botched-up investigation in the case. The judge expressed dismay at the disappearance of the victim’s injury report from the case diary during the trial and referred to his intervention to bring it back from the hospital concerned.
Mentioning that he has suspicions on whether the injury report was at all collected before filing the charge sheet, Judge Mishra also questioned the non-presentation of clothes, blood-stained soil and weapons seized from the attack before the court during the case trial.
The court directed the Purba Bardhaman Superintendent of Police to take necessary action in this regard.
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