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Kolkata, Nov 11 (IANS) A court in West Bengal’s Hooghly district on Tuesday sentenced eight CPI-M workers to life imprisonment in the murder case of Trinamool Congress worker Khudiram Hembram.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Sanjay Kumar Sharma of Chinsurah court pronounced the sentence in the 15-year-old murder case.
According to police records, Hembram, a Trimamool activist, was murdered in Gurap area of Hooghly district on March 18, 2010, the day of his son’s higher secondary (class 12) examination.
That day, after finishing farming work in the fields, Hembram had gone to the house of a friend named Tapan Ruidas. However, he did not return home that day. The next day, on March 19, police recovered his blood-soaked body in a sack from the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) canal.
It was alleged that he was murdered for political reasons and thrown into the water. On the night of 19 March, the deceased’s friend Ruidas lodged a case of murder at Gurap police station.
Based on the complaint, the police arrested 10 CPI-M workers after investigating the case. Cases were registered against the then accused under various sections including murder, destruction of evidence and crime with weapons.
Police filed charge sheet in Chinsurah court. A total of 12 witnesses testified in the case. There were four eyewitnesses to the incident. However, two of the accused died during the trial process.
On November 6, the court had convicted eight accused CPI-M workers. On Monday, the judge sentenced the then head of Gurbari-1 Panchayat Lalu Hansda along with workers Ravi Baske, Lakshmi Ram Baske, Siddheshwar Malik, Sanatan Malik, Ganesh Malik, Lakshminarayan Soren and Nadu Tudu to life imprisonment. Accused Amar Ruidas and Nepal Malik died during the hearing.
–IANS
SH/UK/VD