High Court upholds life term of 4 in 2008 Kanakpur killing

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court has upheld the conviction and life sentences of four men found guilty of murdering a villager in Murshidabad’s Kanakpur during a violent mob attack in April 2008.

The court dismissed their appeal, observing that the prosecution had proved its case through consistent accounts of injured eyewitnesses and medical evidence despite attempts by the defence to highlight contradictions.

The judgment, delivered by a Division Bench of Justices Rajarshi Bharadwaj and Apurba Sinha Ray, recorded that on April 16, 2008, a group of villagers armed with lathis, rods, and sharp weapons stormed the house of the victim, Kajibul, following a quarrel at a pond. The assault left Kajibul fatally injured and several members of his family grievously hurt. He succumbed to multiple skull and rib fractures and lacerations of the lung, as confirmed by the post-mortem report.

The court noted that several witnesses, including family members who sustained injuries in the attack, gave detailed testimony identifying the accused. Their presence at the scene was natural and their injuries added weight to their credibility. The bench emphasised that “mere relationship with the deceased cannot discredit truthful testimony,” and discounted the defence claim that the witnesses had falsely implicated the accused out of enmity.

On the issue of contradictions, the court held that minor variations in timing and sequence of events were expected in such traumatic circumstances. “Trivial inconsistencies cannot override the core of reliable evidence,” the judgment observed. The bench also dismissed the argument that the names of the assailants were not mentioned in medical records, holding that doctors’ primary duty is treatment, not recording culprits.

The court further observed that constructive liability under Section 149 of the IPC applied, as the accused formed part of an unlawful assembly with the common object of attacking the victim’s family. Even if not every blow could be attributed individually, each participant bore responsibility for the fatal assault. Finding no infirmity in the trial court’s appreciation of evidence, the court affirmed the life sentences imposed for murder, alongside concurrent terms for rioting and causing hurt. With two appellants having died during the appeal, the case against them stood abated.