Ashish Dey

A Jamshedpur court on Wednesday sentenced a hotelier, a contractor and a sharpshooter to life for the murder of shoe baron Ashish Dey, a co-owner of Sreeleathers, in the steel town four years ago.

The court of the first additional district judge slapped an additional penalty of Rs 10,000 on each of those convicted — hotelier Binod Singh, contractor Amlesh Singh and hired killer Jitendra Singh, alias Pappu Don. Two other accused, Akhilesh Singh and Vikram Sharma, are at large.

Dey was shot dead by two motorcycle-borne assailants near his house at Aam Bagan, in Jamshedpur’s Sakchi locality, on the morning of November 2, 2007. The 52-year-old businessman was riding his TVS Victor two-wheeler to his Sreeleathers showroom in Sakchi market.

Nobody from Dey’s family was present in court when the verdict was announced or available for comment. “I am satisfied with the verdict,” assistant public prosecutor Virendra Kumar Prasad said.

Dey, the youngest of Sreeleathers founder Suresh Chandra Dey’s three sons, was in charge of the 40-year-old showroom in Sakchi market, the first to be started by the group. He also owned Hotel Smita in Jamshedpur, named after his daughter. He is survived by his wife Dolon and three children, Smita, Subhasish and Soyan.

Sreeleathers is among the leading budget footwear and accessories companies in the country with 30 showrooms, including in Delhi, Jaipur, Chennai and Bhubaneswar. Calcutta is also a big market for the company, the festive-season queues at its Lindsay Street showroom often spilling over to the street.

Investigators found out that Dey’s murder had nothing to do with the family’s successful shoe business. The murder motive was the fallout of a property deal gone wrong, the probe team concluded.

According to the public prosecutor, a builder named Bablu Ghosh snapped a bargain house deal despite stiff resistance from Dey, who wanted to help the owner get a higher price for his property. Ghosh and friend Binod hosted a party at Hotel Smita on October 22, 2007, to celebrate their success.

Dey objected to the revelry at his hotel and a scuffle between the hotel staff and Ghosh led to the owner filing a police complaint. Dey was killed 10 days later.

Pappu Don was arrested at Bokaro a fortnight after the murder. Binod and Amlesh were traced to their homes in Baridih and Sidhgora.