Chandernagore, Nov. 12: CPM leader Suhrid Dutta and supporter Debu Malik were sentenced to life today for the murder of Save Farmland Committee activist Tapasi Malik in Singur.

The judge had read out the charges against them — murder, criminal conspiracy, tampering with evidence and providing false information to protect an offender — yesterday and held them guilty.

In the morning of December 18, 2006, the burnt body of the 18-year-old girl was found in a pit within the Nano project site.

Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC had to be clamped around the Chandernagore court to keep CPM and Trinamul Congress supporters away when the two were brought in this afternoon.

Fast-track court judge A.K. Acharya asked lawyers of both sides whether they had anything to say. The CBI’s Partha Tapaswi demanded “maximum punishment” for the former Singur CPM zonal committee secretary and Malik.

Dutta’s lawyer Arindam Bhattacharya protested. “This case is not rarest of the rare and I request you to be sympathetic.” Malik’s lawyer echoed Bhattacharya.

Dutta and Malik pleaded innocence when Acharya asked them whether they were guilty.

The judge said he did not consider the case “rarest of the rare”. “Although the accused are connected with a political party, I don’t think it is a political murder. The murder was committed for personal gain.… I’m sentencing them to life imprisonment and imposing a fine of Rs 10,000 on each of them,” he said.

Dutta remained stoic as the verdict was read out but Malik was seen wiping his tears. The two were taken to the Chandernagore sub-jail, about 100 metres away.

“We will move the high court,” Dutta’s lawyer said.

State CPM secretary Biman Bose told a programme in West Midnapore that Dutta, still a Hooghly district committee member of the party, would not be expelled “at the moment”. “We will appeal to a higher court.”

“The sentence won’t have any impact on the party’s image,” he added.

Tapasi’s father Manoranjan said he had wanted death for the duo. “We wanted the death sentence. But we welcome the life term. Let them move a higher court, but truth will prevail,” he said.

Her mother Malina burst into tears hearing the sentence. “My daughter’s soul will now rest in peace.”