By IANS,
Kolkata : A West Bengal court Tuesday convicted a Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader and a party activist in connection with the murder of teenager Tapasi Malik, whose charred body was found inside the Tata Motors’ fenced off factory area two years back.
The fast track court at Chandannagar sub-division in Hooghly district convicted the prime accused Suhrid Dutta, CPI-M Singur zonal committee secretary, for being the mastermind in the conspiracy to murder Tapasi, 18, in Dec 2006.
Party activist Debu Malik was convicted on the charge of murder and criminal conspiracy.
“Suhrid was given a charge under section 120B for criminal conspiracy and chalking out a master plan for the murder. And, Debu was convicted (under section 302) with the charge of murder, criminal conspiracy and also for manipulating evidence of the case,” Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) counsel Partha Tapaswi told mediapersons outside the court premises.
He said the minimum penalty for both the accused could be life term imprisonment and maximum death penalty.
The quantum of punishment would be announced Wednesday by the Additional Sessions Judge of the fast track court Amar Kanti Acharya.
Tapasi, from Bajemelia village in Singur, was an active member of the opposition Trinamool Congress-led Save Farmland Committee that was protesting land acquisition in the area for the Tata Motors Nano project.
The CBI – which was asked to probe the case by the state government – picked up Suhrid and Debu from Singur last year.
Over 997 acres had been earmarked for Tata Motors by the state government for its small car project. The site was later abandoned by the auto major following a sustained agitation by the opposition parties.
The issue had triggered a violent face-off between the government and farmers led by a section of the civil society and parties like the Trinamool Congress.