Life for couple in lawyer murder case

JAMSHEDPUR: A fast track court here on Tuesday awarded life imprisonment to a couple for kidnapping and killing lawyer Sadan Kimar Chatterjee about three years ago.
Additional district and sessions judge B K Gautam pronounced the quantum of punishment to Arvind Guha and his wife Smita who kept the advocate in illegal confinement for nearly a month and half and then killed him a gruesome manner at their house in Sonari on September 15, 2007.The fast track court convicted the couple under Sections 364 and 302 of IPC.
The middle-aged couple along with their school-going child Arindam were accused of keeping the lawyer hostage for 45 days at their home and then killing him. The court, however, acquitted Arindam for lack of evidence against him. The court had pronounced the judgment on February 26 but the quantum of punishment was pronounced on Tuesday.
"For Arvind, the 10-year jail imprisonment for conviction under section 364 of IPC would run concurrently with the life imprisonment under section 302," said Brahmdev Pandey, additional public prosecutor and counsel for the late lawyer.
The lawyers fraternity that expressed shock over the ghastly killing of their brethren expressed mixed reaction over the outcome of the judgment. "We were expecting capital punishment to the convicted couple but we abide by the court's judgment," said S K Chaudhary, former secretary, Jamshedpur Bar Association, (JBA). The reaction of the JBA holds importance in the backdrop of the fact that not a single lawyer agreed to plead for the Guhas in this case. "We are not guilty and will appeal in the higher court," murmured Smita in the courtroom following the pronouncement of the punishment this morning.