12 get life in jail for Tripura legislator's murder

A district court in Tripura on Saturday sentenced 12 men, said to be the members and supporters of the ruling CPI-M, to life imprisonment for murdering a Congress legislator and his associate 33 years ago.

Additional District and Sessions Judge, west Tripura, Satya Brata Dutta pronounced the verdict in a jam-packed court, convicting all 12 accused of murdering Congress legislator Parimal Saha and his associate Jitendra Saha on April 7, 1983.

"The district court reopened the case recently after the Tripura High Court asked the lower court to complete the judicial process of the sensational murder case," special public prosecutor Samrat Kar Bhowmik told IANS.

He said that initially 24 people were charge sheeted but seven of them have since died while one Mafiz Mia, a driver, absconded and five were acquitted.

"The offenders would remain in jail until their natural death," Bhowmik said quoting a Supreme Court judgement.

Defence lawyer Raghunath Mukherjee said that a petition would be filed in the Tripura High Court soon against the judgment.

The convicts, aged between 55 and 65, include a bank official and a government teacher.

Opposition Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party separately hailed the judgement.

Saha, the sitting legislator from Charilam assembly constituency in western Tripura, and Jitendra Saha had been allegedly hacked to death by CPI-M cadres and supporters, at Office Tilla under Bishalgarh police station on April 7, 1983.

--IANS

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