Sourav Chowdhury murder: 12 of 14 accused held guilty

Twelve out of 14 accused in the Sourav Chowdhury murder case were held guilty by the Barasat Court on Friday.

It may be mentioned that 21-year-old Chowdhury was a second-year student of Mrinalini Dutta College in Birati and he was killed for protesting against running hooch den near his house at Bamungachi in North 24-Parganas on July 5, 2014. Pieces of his body were found on railway tracks in between Duttapukur and Bamungachi railway stations.

The Court held the prime accused Shyamal Karmakar and eight others including Suman Sarkar, Suman Das, Somnath Sardar, Tarak Das, Amal Barui, Tapas Biswas, Ratan Samaddar and Rakesh Burman guilty under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPS) on charges of murder (302 IPC), kidnapping in order to murder (364 IPC), tampering of evidence (364 IPC) and Criminal Conspiracy (120 (B)). 

Shyamal has been booked under additional charges of possessing fire arms under sections 25 and 27 of the Arms Act.

The three others Sisir Mukherjee, Ratan Das and Poly Maity, who is in bail, were held guilty on charges of giving shelter to the accused.

One of the two other arrested youth Uttam Shikari has turned approver while the other person Anup Talukdar was acquitted of all charges due to lack of evidence. 

The quantum of the punishment will be announced by the court on Saturday.

Recollecting the incident the victim’s brother Sandip said that his brother was kidnapped when he was returning that night after watching a cricket march from a local club. 

The accused led by Shyamal took him to nail factory where he was strangulated with pieces of clothes. 

Later they had dumped the body on the railway tracks where his body was cut into pieces when a train ran over. 

The main accused was arrested from Tarapith after few days where he had taken a shelter. “Anup, who has been acquitted, is one of the main accused. We would take further necessary legal steps so that he is also punished and will discuss with our lawyers in this regard,” he said.

Police had filed the charge-sheet in this connection in September 2014 and the trial had started a few days after the charge-sheet was filed.

The victim’s father said that he is unhappy as one of the accused has been acquitted. “I demand capital punishment of all the accused,” he said adding that every one of his family and the area is waiting for Saturday when the court will announce the quantum of punishment.