Kolkata, Nov 11 (IANS) A court in West Bengal’s Hooghly district on Tuesday sentenced eight CPI-M workers to life imprisonment in connection with the murder of Trinamool Congress activist Khudiram Hembram.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Sanjay Kumar Sharma of the Chinsurah court pronounced the sentence in the 15-year-old murder case.

According to police records, Trimamool activist Hembram was murdered on March 18 in 2010, on the day of his son’s Higher Secondary (class 12) examination in Hooghly district’s Gurap area.

On that day, Hembram had gone to the house of a friend named Tapan Ruidas after finishing farming work in the field. However, he did not return home that day. The next day, on March 19, the police recovered his body, covered in blood, in a sack from the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) canal.

It was alleged that he was hacked to death and thrown into the water for political reasons. On the night of March 19, the deceased’s friend, Ruidas, filed a murder case at the Gurap police station.

Based on the complaint, the police arrested 10 CPI-M workers after investigating the matter. Cases were registered against the then accused under various sections, including murder, destruction of evidence and crime with weapons.

The police submitted the charge sheet to the Chinsurah court. A total of 12 witnesses testified in the case. There were four eyewitnesses to the incident. However, two of the accused died during the trial process.

On November 6, the court had convicted eight accused CPI-M workers. On Monday, the judge sentenced the workers named Ravi Baske, Laxmi Ram Baske, Siddheshwar Malik, Sanatan Malik, Ganesh Malik, Laxminarayan Soren and Nadu Tudu to life imprisonment along with the then Gurbari-1 panchayat chief Lalu Hansda. Accused Amar Ruidas and Nepal Malik had died during the trial.

–IANS

sch/uk/vd