Man sentenced to death for killing cousin in knife attack that left 18 wounds

West Bengal court sentences cousin's murderer to death, citing Mahabharat, as part of rarest of rare cases.

A court in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district awarded the death sentence to a convict on March 29 for the murder of his cousin in March 2021.

Additional Sessions Judge, 3rd Court, Jalpaiguri, Biplab Roy, while awarding the death sentence to Suresh Roy, quoted from the Mahabharat and said that the convict had attacked his unarmed brother, inflicting 18 stab wounds.

Judge Roy noted in his order that during the Mahabharat, both the armies resolved not to attack any soldier or participant in the war while he was unarmed. “In the present case, I find history repeating itself with one cousin brother brutally stabbing another cousin brother over and over, eighteen times, all over his body.” The convict Suresh Roy murdered his cousin Sankar Das on March 4, 2021.

Referring to the guidelines of the Supreme Court, the Judge noted in the order, “when the murder is committed in an extremely brutal, grotesque, diabolical, revolting, and dastardly manner so as to arouse intense and extreme indignation of the community.”

Describing the case as the “rarest of the rare,” the court said there was no chance that the convict would reform. “A cruel mind may be changed by spiritual speeches and training, but a demon’s mind cannot be changed, and he will commit the same offence as and when he gets the opportunity,” the order noted.

The death sentence will be executed subject to confirmation by the Calcutta High Court in accordance with Section 366 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Since the rape and murder of a post graduate trainee doctor on August 9, 2024, at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, courts in West Bengal have awarded capital punishment in more than half a dozen cases. The Additional District and Sessions Judge, Sealdah, however, spared the convict in the R G Kar case, Sanjay Roy, and awarded the former civic police volunteer life imprisonment. Judge Biplab Roy has awarded capital punishment in two more cases of murder in the past year.