Calcutta, July 8: Calcutta High Court today acquitted the five accused in the Chandan Sen murder case, seven years after the doctor’s alleged killing.

Sen, a doctor at Ranaghat State General Hospital in Nadia, was found dead in a pond after a party at one of his colleague’s house. There were injury marks on his body and signs of strangulation.

Sen was murdered allegedly because he had opposed some of his colleagues who were engaged in smuggling the government-run hospital’s drugs and equipment.

A division bench of Justices S.P. Talukdar and P.K. Dey today said the accused — doctor Subhoranjan Khanra, Dr Rahamat Alam, hospital employees Sunil Ganguly and Apurba Mohan Sanyal, and Rahmat’s driver Abbas Ali Karigar — were being acquitted because “the prosecution had failed to prove their guilt”.

Subhoranjan, Alam, Ganguly and Karigar had earlier been given the life sentence by a lower court. Subhoranjan and Alam were Sen’s colleagues. Sanyal had been given a five-year jail sentence.

The CID, which was probing Sen’s alleged murder, said it would challenge the high court’s verdict in the Supreme Court.

On February 26, 2003, Ganguly, the head assistant at the hospital, had invited Sen to a party at his quarters on the hospital premises. All the other accused were also present.

Around 10.20pm, Sen left the party for a stroll, accompanied by Alam and Ganguly. However, the duo returned after 20 minutes and told the others at the party that they could not trace Sen.

Public prosecutor Ashimesh Goswami had told the high court that Sen’s body was found by villagers in a pond near the hospital. “There were 13 injury marks on his body,” Goswami had said.

A day after the alleged murder, Sen’s brother-in-law Hindole Gupta had lodged a complaint at Ranaghat police station. Later, the case was handed over to the CID.

After preliminary inquiry, the investigating agency arrested all the five accused.

The CID had said in its report that Sen’s post-mortem report had revealed that his death was “homicidal” and he died “because of smothering”.

The Nadia district court, which was earlier hearing the case, had on July 5, 2005, held Subhoranjan, Alam, Ganguly and Karigar guilty of murdering Sen. They were given the life sentence. Sanyal was given the five-year jail term for misleading the court by saying he had no knowledge of the alleged murder. Subhoranjan’s wife Arundhati, who was also charged, had been acquitted because “she had no connection with the murder”.

On September 18, 2005, all the accused appealed for bail in Calcutta High Court. “Sanyal was granted bail but the pleas of the other four were turned down.

In March this year, the appeals moved by the four accused came up for hearing before the division bench of the high court.

Sekhar Basu, the lawyer for the accused five, claimed in the high court that the sessions court’s judgment was “absolutely wrong” as there were no proof to substantiate the allegation that his clients had murdered Sen.