A friend of Kuntal Sain, murdered in July 2004, has been pronounced guilty of hacking the 18-year-old to death.

The trial judge will deliver Arijit Pal’s sentence on Friday. Another accused in the case, Sampad Mukherjee, had died in Presidency jail in October 2004.

The court also found Sampad’s mother Manjusha and younger brother Jyotirmoy guilty of hatching the plot.

The quartet had kept Kuntal confined in Sampad’s house in Howrah’s Sasthitala on July 2, 2004, and demanded Rs 25 lakh from his father as ransom. The same evening, Arijit and Sampad killed Kuntal and dumped the body under a bridge.