Kebal Rai on the way to court on Tuesday. Picture by Amit Datta

A fast track court on Tuesday sentenced domestic help Kebal Rai alias Pancham to death for the murder of Tarachand and Sarda Banka three years ago.

On September 15, Subodh Kumar Batabyal, the additional district and sessions judge of the fourth fast track court at Bichar Bhavan, had pronounced Kebal guilty of murdering the couple and robbing cash and valuables from their seventh floor flat on Camac Street.

He was sentenced to death for murder and life imprisonment for “voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery”. The death sentence, however, has to be confirmed by the high court.

Police found the couple’s bodies in the flat on April 18, 2005, after being alerted by neighbours. Kebal, the only other resident of the flat, was missing. On May 14, he was arrested in a village in Banka district of Bihar.

Kebal didn’t show any emotion while the judge read out the sentence on Tuesday. His family members were not present in court.

The three sons and daughter of Tarachand and Sarda and their relatives hugged each other.

“We are happy that justice has been done,” Suresh and Rajesh Banka, two of the couple’s sons, told the detective department officers who investigated the case.

They later met police commissioner Gautam Mohan Chakrabarti at Lalbazar.