Kolkata: The seven miscreants pronounced guilty in Kolkata Police constable Ashim Dam murder case have been sentenced to life imprisonment by Barrackpore Court on Thursday. Later, Dam's family said they would have been much happier if the court had awarded them
death sentence.
Sources informed that after the seven persons were pronounced guilty on Wednesday, Barrackpore Court Judge Tapas Kumar Mitra before announcing the quantum of punishment
asked them if they had anything to say.
There was no major ground that could influence the quantum of punishment and keeping the severity of the crime in mind, they were awarded life sentence.
The magistrate stated that death terms were given only in the rarest of rare cases.
Thus, he pronounced rigorous imprisonment for the seven guilty.
Later Dam's niece said: "We would have been happier if the court had announced death sentences for them. We will decide later whether we are going to appeal before a higher court." On March 8, 2012, on the day of Holi, Entally police station constable Asim Dam was beaten up badly by some miscreants at Bisharpara in Airport area while saving his niece from
getting molested.
He was admitted to a hospital where he died after two days. Later, Airport police station initiated a murder case and arrested the seven, who on Wednesday, were pronounced guilty by the court.
It was alleged that Dam's family members were also beaten up badly while trying to save Dam. Even Dam's 78-year-old mother
was not spared.
He was thrashed using hockey sticks, iron rods and later stabbed using knives
Two days after the incident, police arrested two miscreants identified as Abhijit Ghosh and Debu Mukherjee.
On interrogating them, police were able to nab Prasenjit Dutta, Biswajit Ghosh Kuntal Chakraborty, Batu Majumdar and Tapan Chandra. Sources informed that one more person identified as Jabbar Ghosh was pronounced guilty who is still absconding.