Court awards life term for 13 in lynching of father-son duo in Murshidabad

A court in West Bengal’s Murshidabad convicted 13 persons of lynching a father-son duo, Harogobind Das and Chandan Das, at Samserganj in April amid a violent protest against the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, and sentenced all of them to lifetime imprisonment on Tuesday (December 23, 2025). The court also directed the State to pay ₹15 lakh as compensation to the victims’ family.

The 13 were pronounced guilty on Monday (December 22, 2025), eight months after a murder that left the communally-diverse Samserganj area unsettled and tense for weeks. The convicts are: Dildar Nadab (28), Asmaul Nadab alias Kalu (27), Inzamul Haque alias Bablu (27), Zia-ul Haque (45), Fekarul Sheikh alias Mahak (25), Azfarul Sheikh alias Bilai (24), Monirul Sheikh alias Moni (39), Iqbal Sheikh (28), Nurul Islam (23), Saba Karim (25), Hazrat Sheikh alias Hazrat Ali (36), Akbar Ali alias Albar Sheikh (30) and Yusuf Sheikh (49). 

“We made the case stand on seven Sections, including mob lynching, rioting, dacoity, house trespassing and murder. The court has awarded life imprisonment to all convicts, including 10 years’ imprisonment for dacoity and house trespassing and five years for rioting. A sum of ₹5,000 fine has also been levied for each offence. State authorities have been directed to pay ₹15 lakh as compensation to the victims’ family,” public prosecutor Bivas Chatterjee told The Hindu on Tuesday (December 23).

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He said this was the second conviction in the country and the first in West Bengal under Section 103(2) of the BNS that pertained to mob lynching. Mr. Chatterjee also claimed that it was the first conviction in West Bengal for rioting.

On April 12, Harogobind and Chandan were brutally hacked to death after being dragged out of their home in Jafrabad village in Murshidabad’s Samserganj police station area when a protest against the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 turned violent. The mob also torched and vandalised property, compelling hundreds of residents to flee from the Samserganj area, particularly Dhulian and Tinpakuria. 

The Calcutta High Court on April 12, while hearing a petition by Leader of the Opposition and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Suvendu Adhikari, had directed the deployment of Central forces in the region, where communal tensions flared for several weeks since the violence.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the leadership of Deputy Inspector General of Murshidabad police range Syed Waquar Raza investigated the murders and on June 6 this year submitted a 983-page charge sheet, 56 days after the crime. 

“The court had observed in its verdict that the Das family had an ongoing feud related to property with certain people from the neighbourhood. During the incident, animosity stemming from the property feud was fuelled by the atmosphere of violence that ensued at that time. This is what we had found as the motive behind the murders,” Additional Director General of Police, South Bengal, Supratim Sarkar said on Tuesday (December 23).

He added that after the incident, the 13 miscreants were on the run. They were apprehended following raids at Jharsugda in Odisha, Pakur in Jharkhand, Paikar in West Bengal’s Birbhum district, from different locations in Howrah, and from Farakka and Jangipur. The investigation involved gait pattern analysis of the miscreants, DNA analysis recovered from offending weapons, and mapping of the accused through mobile towers.

A high-ranking police official associated with the investigation had earlier told The Hindu that the 13 persons named in the chargesheet were locals of the area, and some of them were known to the bereaved family. 

The judgment in this case, along with the recent lynching of Dipu Chandra Das in Bangladesh, assumes significance in the light of the BJP’s political line ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls in West Bengal. 

Hanshkhali gang-rape case

In another development, a court in West Bengal’s Ranaghat on Monday (December 22) convicted Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Samarendra Gayali, his son Brajagopal alias Sohail Gayali, and seven others in the gangrape of a minor girl at Sohail’s birthday party in Hanskhali in Nadia district in April 2022. The girl had succumbed to her injuries a day later.

The case was investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The nine convicts were pronounced guilty on Monday (December 21) under several Sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, including Sections pertaining to gang rape, destruction of evidence, criminal intimidation etc.

On Tuesday (December 23), the court sentenced three of them, namely Sohail, Ranjit Mallick and Prabhakar Poddar, to life imprisonment. Trinamool leader Samarendra Gayali and Piyush Bhakt were awarded five years’ imprisonment, while Angshuman Bagchi and Deepta Gayali were awarded three years’ imprisonment.

The remaining two convicts, Surjit Roy and Akash Barui, were released on a bail bond of ₹50,000 each.