Jhargram, March 17: Patit Paban Haldar, Santosh Debnath and Sushil Roy today became the first CPI (Maoist) members to be jailed by a court in Bengal.

The additional West Midnapore sessions judge sentenced Haldar and Debnath to rigorous life imprisonment and Roy to five years behind bars for a range of offences ? from those under the arms and explosive substances acts to wa-ging war against the state.

Roy, 68, a Maoist politburo member, got away with a lighter punishment because of his age and failing health. If unable to pay a fine of Rs 19,000, he will have to spend three more years in jail.

Haldar, a former state sec-retary of the outfit and also part of its think tank, is 50, and Debnath, who co-ordinated rebel activities in Bengal, 48.

Police said Roy and Haldar were picked up from Tamajuri forest in Belpahari, West Midnapore ? about 180 km from Calcutta ? on May 23, 2005. Debnath was held a couple of days later from Laljal forest, also in Belpahari.

Roy accused the police of lying. “I was arrested from Konnagar in Hooghly on May 21. I don’t know where the Tama- juri forest is... I’ve never been there. The police have framed me.” Haldar and Debnath, too, professed their innocence.

“A court draws up its verdict on the basis of witnesses’ accounts. However, I will keep in mind your health and age,” Biswanath De told Roy before reading out the sentence.

Among the 23 witnesses heard by the judge, statements of two women ? Bijoli Choudhury and Bharati Das ? proved vital for the police.

Bijoli, 72, the landlady of a flat Roy had rented on Battala Bylane in Hind Motor, and her neighbour Bharati told the court he lived under an alias, Amit Jana, and had claimed to be a book dealer. They also identified Haldar and Debnath, who frequented the flat.

The police had found in the flat gelatine sticks, a computer, CDs that showed kangaroo trials and the apparent beheading of a man.

Jhargram town, 175 km from Calcutta, was draped in a security blanket today in anticipation of a verdict against the rebels with the police sca-nning every entry point and prohibitory orders promulgated around the chief judicial magistrate’s court. Only fam-ily members of the accused, lawyers and journalists were allowed inside the courtroom.

After the trio had been convicted, their lawyer Prasanta Sinha said he would challenge the verdict in the high court.