Killer cop Pijush Kanti Ghosh

Constable Pijush Kanti Ghosh was sentenced to life in prison by a Barrackpore court on Tuesday for shooting dead a 36-year-old woman, her husband and sister-in-law in 2011 with a self-loading rifle.

The 30-year-old convict did not break down and remained composed as the verdict was read out.

“This is a gruesome incident but doesn’t call for capital punishment, since it is not rarest of rare,” said Santanu Mishra, the additional district judge of Barrackpore sub-divisional court.

The young cop with the 8th Battalion of the State Armed Police emptied 10 bullets from a 7.62mm 1A1 service gun on Sharbani Pal, his self-confessed married lover, her 40-year-old husband Manabendra and Rohini Roy, 46, on June 11 two years ago. He destroyed a family in a fit of rage over an alleged illicit affair gone sour.

An officer said Ghosh met the trio at Ardali Bazaar in Barrackpore moments before the shooting. “They met around 8am. It was a Sunday. Ghosh was in his uniform and the SLR was slung on his shoulder. He called them to a field. After an exchange of words, he fired indiscriminately at them,” he said.

The couple died on the grassy ground. Rohini succumbed to her wounds in a hospital in Calcutta, 20km away.

Sharbani’s brother Bibhash, who was standing at a distance with Rohini’s son Samiran when the incident took place, said Ghosh got away with a lighter punishment.

“He killed three persons, orphaned two children and ruined their future. He should have been hanged,” he said.

The constable faced another case of not depositing the SLR and two magazines with 25 bullets each to the armoury after finishing sentry duty at Barrackpore’s Latbagan police lines on the night of June 10. Nor did he return to the barracks.

The court reserved its judgment on the second case.

He bolted soon after the triple murder but was nabbed while trying to sneak into Bangladesh through Petrapole in Bongaon.

A total of 27 witnesses corroborated the murder before the court pronounced its verdict and ordered Ghosh to pay Rs 50, 000 as fine — 80 per cent of which would go the slain couple’s 10-year old son Surojit and seven-year-old daughter Srabonita.