OUR LEGAL REPORTER
A Calcutta high court division bench on Wednesday upheld the judgment passed by the city sessions’ court pronouncing five policemen guilty of killing traffic sergeant Bapi Sen and sentencing them to life imprisonment.
“This court rejects the appeal moved by the convicts,” the division bench of Justice A.K. Talukdar and Justice R.N. Ray said in their judgment after “upholding” the trial court verdict.
On the night of December 31, 2002, Bapi Sen, 32, a sergeant with the Tollygunge traffic guard, was brutally assaulted on the tram tracks near Hind cinema by five constables of the reserve force for allegedly protesting the lewd comments passed by them at a young girl, riding pillion on a motorcycle.
Bapi slipped into coma and died five days later, leaving behind his wife and two sons.
The five accused — Sridam Bauri, Madhusudan Chakraborty, Pijush Goswami, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Shekhar Mitra — were arrested and tried before the city sessions’ court. Judge Madhusudan Majumdar, on January 30, 2005, held the accused guilty of murdering Bapi Sen.
The woman, for whom Bapi sacrificed his life, never came forward to lodge a complaint. The driver and helper of the taxi, in which Bapi and four of his friends were travelling that night, refused to make any deposition before the court. “We did not notice any scuffle between Bapi and the accused,” they stated
In its judgment, the high court bench said: “It was a very difficult case to investigate. The woman, who should have been the main witness, and the motorcyclist with whom she was, did not come forward to lodge a complaint or testify in court. Also, criminal proceedings should be initiated against the taxi driver, Madhukant Jha, and his helper, Mewalal Gupta, for lying before the court.”
The bench applauded the job done by the two investigating officers, R. Mondal and Atanu Banerjee.
“Justice has prevailed,” said public prosecutor Ashimesh Goswami. His rival lawyers in the case said they would move the apex court.
I am also proud of our judiciary who, inspite of non-cooperation from witnesses, convicted the 5 policemen who beat up Bappi to death.
Again, here too, it shows the lack of faith people have on the police when the woman who Bappi saved and her friend did not come forward to stand as witness for the police are known to harass more than help the public.Instead of acting on complaints, they are known more for harassing complainants.
Inspite of so much non-cooperation, it is all the more commendable that the five have ve been convicted.
My only GROUSE is that they were not awarded the DEATH PENALTY
Taxi trio nailed for kidnap
- Rs 1.9-lakh ransom haul
A STAFF REPORTER
Police cracked the Sandipan Das abduction case on Wednesday, arresting the taxi trio behind the crime and establishing a link between cabbies and recent incidents of snatching and robbery along the Rajarhat and Belghoria expressways.
The three arrests, powered by a breakthrough on Tuesday night, coincided with the Nabadiganta township authorities unveiling a security and taxi surveillance plan for the Sector V-New Town tech hub.
The superintendent of police of North 24-Parganas, Rahul Srivastava, said 42-year-old taxi driver Sanjay Pal was arrested from his Tobin Road residence early on Wednesday for plotting and executing the abduction of the Capgemini manager on Friday night.
The police found Rs 1.9 lakh in ransom money — exactly how much Sandipan’s family paid the gang is yet to be confirmed — hidden in a cotton pillow in Sanjay’s residence. Sanjay’s confession led to the arrest of his accomplices Amit Das, of Domjur in Howrah, and Murshidabad resident Manoj Bag within a couple of hours of each other.
The 25-member investigation squad had split into four groups and fanned out into North 24-Parganas to look for Sanjay after another taxi driver who was to have helped him collect the ransom from Sandipan’s family was arrested on Tuesday on the basis of a tip-off.
“Md Muqaddar’s taxi (WB 19B 0251) was to have been the one in which the kidnapper trio would collect the ransom, but they fell out over something and he backed out of the plan. Once we found Muqaddar, the pieces in the kidnap-for-ransom puzzle fell into place,” said Srivastava.
Although it hasn’t been established whether Sanjay and his accomplices were involved in other crimes in the area, the police are collating evidence suggesting that recent incidents of snatching and road robberies on the high-speed corridors on the eastern and northern fringes were the handiwork of a taxi gang.
The trio will be produced in court on Thursday.
Last Friday, Sanjay was waiting for a potential hostage victim near the DLF Building in New Town when Sandipan walked towards his taxi (WB 04D 3227). Amit and Manoj were waiting near the dark stretch leading to Nicco Park, where Sanjay stopped on the pretext of a breakdown (see graphic).
Ash Mohammad, the first taxi driver to be arrested in the case, was apparently unaware of the plan despite his vehicle (WB 04A 0975) being used to collect the ransom from Delhi Road.
“Sanjay and one of his accomplices had got off Muqaddar’s taxi at Alam Bazar after their argument on Saturday night, and Mohammad happened to be standing by. So they hired his taxi to go to Delhi Road and collect the ransom,” an officer said.
The police, who had accused Sandipan’s family of making contradictory statements, received the most crucial piece of information — the registration number of Mohammad’s taxi — from them. Identikits of the men involved in the abduction were drawn up and circulated in North 24-Parganas on the basis of descriptions provided by Sandipan and Mohammad, who is in judicial custody.
“The Citu taxi union and the Regional Transport Authority helped us trace Mohammad’s taxi. We had the advantage of knowing where to look because all the ransom calls made to Sandipan’s family from his cellphone were traced to towers in North 24-Parganas,” said R. Banerjee, the additional SP in Barasat.
It is not often that I get the opportunity to praise our Kolkata police although I do praise our judiciary quite ofter.
The investigating officers of the Kolkata Police really did us proud in solving the kidnapping case of Sandipan However, it shows the low estimate the people have of the police that the family kept the police in the dark until Sandipan was back for they knew the police would make a mess of everything and they may lose their son.
It was the foresight of the members of the family who went to pay the ransom money that they noted down the Taxi number which finally led to the arrest of the trio.
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