Kolkata: The family members of Hargobindo Das and his son Chandan Das, the father and the son killed in Murshidabad riots in April this year, will approach the Calcutta High Court seeking death penalty for the 13 convicts in the case who were sentenced to life imprisonment on Tuesday by the Jangipur sub-divisional court in the same district of West Bengal.
The decision was taken by the family members of the deceased father and son after they had a meeting with the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, soon after the sub-divisional court pronounced life imprisonment for the 13 individuals convicted in the case.
The Leader of the Opposition had assured the family members of all necessary cooperation in carrying forward the legal battle at the Calcutta High Court.
The deceased father and son were residents of Jafrabad village under the Samserganj Police Station in Jangipur Police District in Murshidabad district.
They were killed during their attempts to resist the rioters amid a communal riot-like situation that broke out in pockets of the district in April this year during protests against the Waqf (Amendment) Act.
The sub-divisional court, while convicting the 13 accused in the case, said that the reasons of the murder were not prompted by any political motive but out of personal vendetta.
The Bharatiya Janata Party had claimed that the observation of the judge had exposed the fact that the murders were attempts to mislead the people and deflect responsibility in the name of opposing the Waqf (Amendment) Act.
Earlier this year, the family members of the deceased father and the son rejected the compensation offer from the Trinamool Congress-led state government.
However, they accepted the compensation offered to them by the Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari.
In April this year, the Calcutta High Court, while directing the formation of the Special Investigation Team to investigate the Murshidabad riots, also ordered the deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) there.
A division bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury also said that the measures taken by the West Bengal government to control communal unrest were inadequate, and had the CAPF been deployed earlier, the situation would not have been so “grave” and “volatile”.
(IANS)
