Dhanbad, Nov. 18: Five of the eight persons accused in the much publicised Gurudas Chatterjee murder case were “found guilty” and convicted by the fast track court of fourth additional district and sessions judge Bhola Prasad today.
The sentence will be pronounced at a later date.
Altogether 19 witnesses deposed in the trail of the case, which began in 2001. The court, however, acquitted three other persons since the prosecution failed to corroborate the evidence against them to establish their complicity in the murder.
Chatterjee, a Marxist Coordination Committee legislator from Nirsa, was gunned down on April 14 in 2000 while on his way to Dhanbad.
According to the FIR lodged with the Govindpur police in connection with the incident, the legislator was riding pillion on a motorcycle of a party worker when he was overtaken by another two-wheeler on the busy Grand Trunk Road allegedly by Umesh Singh and Shiv Shankar Singh.
While Shiv Shankar was driving the bike, Umesh Singh who was on the pillion, opened fire from point-blank range, killing the legislator on the spot. Apart from Shiv Shankar and Umesh, eight people had been named accused in the case.
The MCC had alleged that the coal mafia gangs had a hand in the murder since Chatterjee was vocal against them and had also launched a crusade against the gangsters. The other accused included coal baron Narmadeshwar Singh, Nuren Master and Vijay Singh, all of whom were found guilty of “hatching a conspiracy of the murder” by the court. They face charges under Sections 302 and 120/B of the Indian Penal Code.
The ruling brought cheer to the MCC. Hundreds of party workers had assembled in the court, including Chatterjee’s son Arup, now the Nirsa MLA.
The MCC workers were so excited that the proceedings of the court were disturbed frequently by their slogans. The judge had to ask the legislator to rein in his supporters. There were, however, a large number of supporters of the accused persons who left the court in despair after the judge’s decision.
“This is victory of justice, a triumph of good over evil. We were eagerly waiting for this day for the past three years,” Arup Chatterjee said after the verdict.
He said the crusade launched by his father against the coal mafia gangs would continue.