A court here on Tuesday sentenced the former manager of a nationalised bank to life imprisonment on charges of murdering his colleague with whom he had reportedly developed an affair eight years ago.

Rajiv Kumar, former manager of State Bank of India's Mejia branch, reportedly called his 28-year-old colleague Shilpa Agarwal to his rented flat in Durgapur town when his wife and daughter were away on February 10, 2018.

Police said the duo were in a "partying mood and had sex multiple times" before Rajiv strangulated Shilpa to death. Later, Rajiv partially charred the body after cutting it into pieces and stuffed it in a large trolley bag to dispose of it. He kept the body inside the trolley suitcase until his wife returned home on February 15, 2018.

Rajiv's wife Manisha, who was then an SBI assistant manager, had alerted the police after she learnt about the incident on February 15. The police recovered Shilpa's decomposed body in a blue suitcase from the storeroom of Rajiv's fourth-floor flat in a multi-storey building in Durgapur.

Rajiv initially told the police that Shilpa had hanged herself.

The additional district and session judge of Durgapur, West Burdwan, Prasanta Chowdhury, also ordered an additional eight-year jail term for trying to dispose of the body. Both the punishments will run concurrently.

Speaking to reporters, the victim's uncle, Anil Kedia, who was present in the court demanded capital punishment for the guilty.

The victim's brother Sandip Agarwal said he had been shuttling between court and their home in Bankura's Mejia for eight years in the hope that Rajiv would get capital punishment. "Our mother fell ill after the incident and could not come out of the trauma. We want capital punishment for the guilty," said Sandip, who is physically challenged.