West Bengal: Murshidabad court awards life term to 13 for Samsherganj double murder

A court in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district on Monday sentenced 13 people to life imprisonment and imposed a cumulative fine of Rs 15 lakh in connection with the murder of a father and son in Samsherganj earlier this year.

The verdict was delivered by the Jangipur sub-divisional court, where Judge Amitabh Mukhopadhyay held the accused guilty of hacking to death Hargobinda Das and his son Chandan Das during protests over the Waqf Amendment Act on 12 April.

The killings took place at Jafarabad village under the Samsherganj police station limits and had led to widespread tension in the district and other parts of the state.

According to the prosecution, the accused broke open the door of the victims’ house, dragged the father and son onto the street and assaulted them with sharp weapons, killing them on the spot.

Following the incident, the district police constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case. All 13 accused were arrested and charges were filed after the investigation.

The trial continued for several months and concluded on 16 December. On Monday, the court convicted all the accused and later pronounced the sentence of life imprisonment along with the fine.

The 983-page chargesheet detailed the sequence of events leading to the murders and the roles allegedly played by each of the accused. The court noted that the prosecution was able to establish the charges through:

• Testimony of 38 witnesses

• Forensic evidence

• Police investigation reports and documentary records

The court observed that several key depositions during the trial had strengthened the prosecution’s case.

While the murders had sparked political controversy at the time, the police had consistently maintained that the crime was the result of personal enmity and not politically motivated. This position was reiterated in the chargesheet submitted before the court.

Reacting to the verdict, West Bengal Police said in a post on X that the court had awarded life imprisonment to all 13 accused in the “brutal double murder of father and son in Samsherganj”.

The police said the SIT was formed immediately after the incident and that a comprehensive investigation led to the filing of the chargesheet. It added that the judgment reflected the force’s policy of zero tolerance towards attempts to create communal disharmony.