Bapi Sen murder case: Calcutta HC upholds life sentences of cops

The Calcutta high court today upheld the life sentences of five policemen, convicted for killing a traffic sergeant who had protested against their harassment of a woman on the eve of New Year 2003.

A division bench comprising justice Amit Talukdar and justice Raghunath Ray upheld the sentence of the five Kolkata Police Reserve Force constables, who had been given life terms by the city civil and sessions court on July 1, 2004 after it found them guilty of murdering traffic sergeant Bapi Sen and outraging the modesty of a woman.

On the night of December 31, 2002, the five convicts — Sridam Bauri, Madhusudan Chakraborty, Pijush Goswami, Sekhar Mitra and Mujibur Rahman — were chasing a woman riding pillion on a motorbike at Nirmal Chander Street in Kolkata, when Sen intervened to rescue the girl.

He was mercilessly beaten up by the constables following which he fell down and his head hit the tram tracks. He became unconscious after that.

After five days in coma, Sen, who had a wife and two little children, died at a private hospital in the metropolis.

However, the woman, for whom Sen gave up his life, never came forward to depose and her identity still remained a mystery.

The division bench also directed that criminal proceedings be drawn up against the driver and helper of the taxi in which the constables were travelling for giving false information under oath. The court had declared driver Madhukant Jha and  helper Mewalal Gupta hostile during trial.

The high court also lauded the exemplary performance of the first investigating officer R Mondal and the subsequent IO Atanu Banerjee, who is now the officer in-charge of the homicide department of Kolkata police's detective department.

The bench directed the commissioner of police to enter laudatory remarks in the service records of the two officers for pursuing the case against the constables meticulously and bringing it to a logical conclusion.