In a significant judgment, the Calcutta High Court has acquitted three individuals, including a man and a woman, who were sentenced to death for the gruesome 2014 murder of a woman whose dismembered body was discovered at Sealdah Railway Station. The division bench ruled that the prosecution had failed to establish their guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
The bench, comprising Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Md Shabbar Rashidi, overturned the conviction and capital punishment awarded to Surojit Deb, his friend Lipika Poddar, and Sanjoy Biswas by the Sealdah sessions court in 2019. The judges directed that the three be released immediately.
“We are of the view that the prosecution had hopelessly failed to bring home the charges levelled against the appellants at the trial, beyond all reasonable doubts sufficient enough to secure their conviction,” the bench observed in its judgment delivered on Thursday.
The case dates back to May 20, 2014, when police discovered chopped body parts stuffed in bedding in the car parking area of Sealdah Railway Station. The remains were later identified as those of Jayanti Deb, Surojit’s estranged wife.
According to the prosecution, Surojit allegedly murdered Jayanti with the help of his friend Lipika, with whom he was living at the time, and then hired Sanjoy Biswas to dispose of the body. The sessions court had found all three guilty and awarded them the death penalty in July 2019.
However, during the appeal, the defence argued that there was no evidence linking the accused to the crime scene or proving they were involved in the act. The appellants’ lawyer contended that the prosecution failed to establish who placed the body in the railway station’s parking lot and that the case was built on conjecture and false implication.
Despite the state government urging the High Court to uphold the conviction and sentence, the bench found the evidence insufficient to sustain the charges and set aside the lower court’s ruling.
