Kolkata court sentences man to death for killing elderly professor couple

Kolkata | A Kolkata court has sentenced a man to death for murdering a retired college teacher couple, calling it a “rarest of rare” case due to the betrayal of trust and cruel nature of the crime.

As per the case, the death of college teachers Pran Gobinda Das and Renuka Das on July 15, 2015, was due to repeated brutal assaults on their faces and heads and mutilation of their facial portions.

Anirban Das, the additional sessions judge at Sealdah sessions court, observed that the court did not find any indication of provocation by the victims that might have ignited the violence.

The judge noted that Sanjay Sen, a rickshaw puller whom the couple had known since the days he used to be a fishmonger earlier and reposed trust in him, used to frequent their residential flat in a housing complex in Chitpur area in north Kolkata.

It was noted that the couple used to hire Sen to visit banks, doctors and markets.

"The trust that the elderly couple placed in him, allowing him into their home and depending on him for assistance with daily activities, makes his betrayal more heinous rather than providing any mitigating context," the judge observed in the judgment.

The court said that the fact that "Sen nurtured this trust over time for the apparent purpose of eventually exploiting it demonstrates cold-blooded preplanning".

"The prolonged nature of the attack indicates that the accused had multiple opportunities to reconsider his actions and stop the violence, but chose to continue," the court said.

The prosecution had stated that Sen had continued his brutality for more than four hours before leaving the flat with robbed articles like gold jewellery and cash.

The court observed that this suggests a level of determination and cruelty that cannot be mitigated by any personal circumstances.

"The mutilation of both victims' faces shows a level of violence that goes beyond what would be necessary to accomplish robbery, indicating sadistic tendencies that cannot be explained away by economic desperation or other mitigating factors," the court said.

Judge Das said that "the trial courts must understand that the seriousness of the crime, the public anger it causes and the need to warn others all lead to one conclusion: this is a perfect example of a rarest of rare case".

"The rules of justice, societal values and legal principles all clearly show that the convict Sanjay Sen's crime is so extreme that lighter punishments, like life imprisonment, would be completely unfair," the court said in its judgement delivered last week.

The court also observed that giving the death penalty here is not just about punishing the offender but a necessary step for society.

"It sends a strong moral message that betraying trust, exploiting vulnerable people and using unnecessary violence will face the strongest possible rejection.

"By doing this, the law defends the values of trust, compassion and human dignity, ensuring that such horrific crimes are never tolerated," the judge observed.

Judge Das, who had also awarded life sentence to Sanjay Roy after finding him guilty for the rape and murder of an on-duty doctor at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9, 2024, said that the nature of the relationship between the accused and the victims actually serves to aggravate rather than mitigate the offence.

The CBI, which was handed over the probe into the R G Kar rape-murder case by the Calcutta High Court, is currently conducting further investigation into the matter