Kolkata lawyer sentenced to life in prison for strangulating husband to death with mobile charger

Barasat (WB), September 16

Lawyer Anindita Pal was sentenced to life imprisonment by a fast-track court in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district on Wednesday for strangulating her husband Rajat Dey to death with a mobile phone charger.

Additional district and sessions judge Sujit Kumar Jha, who on Monday convicted her for the murder of her husband, sentenced her to life term and a fine of Rs 10,000.

The court also found her guilty of causing the disappearance of evidence and sentenced her to one year in prison for that. Both the sentences will run concurrently, the judge ordered.

Special public prosecutor Bibhas Chatterjee prayed for the capital punishment to Anindita, claiming that it was a premeditated murder.

The court, however, sentenced her to life imprisonment since she has a three-year-old child, and also because there was no eyewitness and the conviction was based on circumstantial evidence.

As she was being taken to the prison van from the courtroom, Anindita said she was framed and she will fight till the “last drop of blood”.

During the trial, the prosecution had claimed that on the intervening night of November 24 and 25, 2018, Anindita strangulated her husband Rajat, also a lawyer, with the wire of a mobile phone charger in their New Town flat near Kolkata.

The prosecution claimed that the couple were having a strained relationship for some time and that led to the murder of Rajat.

Anindita’s lawyer Pinak Mitra claimed that she was sleeping in another room when she heard a sound from Rajat’s room and found him hanging after rushing there.

Rajat’s father had lodged an FIR alleging that Anindita had killed his son and she was arrested on November 29 by the police following interrogation.

Trial and arguments in the case were completed in March this year.

Both Anindita and Rajat were practising lawyers at the Calcutta High Court. PTI