Suri, Nov. 10: A Suri court today convicted 44 people — four CPM members and 40 party supporters — of massacring 11 farmers owing allegiance to the Trinamul Congress in Nanoor 10 years ago.

Acquitting 23 people, the first additional sessions judge of Suri said the sentence would be announced tomorrow. Punishment can range from life imprisonment to death by hanging, judge Biswanath Konar said after delivering the verdict.

Those found guilty of the massacre include a CPM’s zonal committee member and three local committee members. Of the 81 accused persons, five are absconding and nine have died in the past 10 years.

“We have been praying that 10 of those found guilty be given the death sentence. We are waiting for tomorrow’s sentencing,” said Dilip Nayak, lawyer representing the family members of those killed.

On the morning of July 27, 2000, CPM activists had clashed with farmers belonging to Trinamul at Suchpur village in Birbhum’s Nanoor over the right to cultivate a four-bigha plot.

Eleven farmers were hacked to death, the biggest toll in a political clash in Bengal in recent memory.

The disputed plot is now being cultivated by 10 sharecroppers, one of whom was today found guilty in the massacre.

“They (the CPM members and supporters) killed 11 of our supporters brutally with sharp weapons in front of my eyes,” said Trinamul supporter Abdul Khalek, the prime witness in the case.

The district administration had provided security to Khalek, a resident of Harmur village neighbouring Suchpur, after CPM-backed antisocials allegedly attacked him several times during the trial.

Police had filed a chargesheet against 81 people, including Nitya Chatterjee, the then Suchpur gram panchayat member and CPM zonal committee member, on August 26, 2001.

The trial started on April 25, 2002, and continued for eight years.

In 2007, Calcutta High Court had asked the Suri district court to speed up proceedings. The Suri court has examined 32 witnesses.

The court had earlier decided to pronounce the verdict on October 4 but deferred it because one of the accused, Harai Sheikh, was undergoing treatment for a waist injury at Burdwan Medical College and Hospital. His lawyer had submitted medical certificates to the court.

Soon after the verdict, Trinamul supporters and workers distributed sweets in the court complex. The party supporters also garlanded Ranjit Ganguly, one of the lawyers of the complainants.

Anubrata Mondal, the district Trinamul president, said: “We were waiting for this day. Although we had to wait for a decade, finally we are going to get justice. The Nanoor massacre is one of the most heinous crimes committed by the CPM against us. They should take a lesson from the verdict that crime does not pay.”

Manabendra Mukherjee, the lawyer representing the accused persons, said: “We will move the high court for justice. We are now waiting for the sentence tomorrow.”