A court in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district on Monday sentenced 13 people to life imprisonment and imposed a cumulative fine of Rs 15 lakh in connection with the murder of a father and son at Samsherganj earlier this year.

The judgment was delivered by the Jangipur sub-divisional court, where Judge Amitabh Mukhopadhyay held the accused guilty of hacking to death Hargobinda Das and his son Chandan Das during protests over the Waqf Amendment Act on April 12.

The killings, which took place at Jafarabad village under the Samsherganj police station, had triggered widespread tension across the state.

Following the incident, the district police constituted a Special Investigation Team to probe the case. All the accused were subsequently arrested and put on trial.

The hearing continued for several months and concluded on 16 December. On Monday, the court convicted all 13 accused and later pronounced life imprisonment along with a fine.

According to the prosecution, the accused broke open the door of the victims’ house, dragged the father and son onto the street and assaulted them with sharp weapons, killing them.

The chargesheet, running into 983 pages, laid out the sequence of events and detailed the nature of the crime.

The court said the prosecution was able to establish the charges through the testimony of 38 witnesses, forensic evidence, police investigation reports and other documentary proof.

Several key depositions during the trial were cited as having strengthened the prosecution’s case.

While the murders had sparked political controversy at the time, police maintained from the outset that the crime stemmed from personal enmity and had no political motive.

This position was reiterated in the charge sheet submitted by the investigators.

Reacting to the verdict, West Bengal Police said in a post on X that the court had awarded life imprisonment to all 13 accused in the “brutal double murder of father and son in Samsherganj”.

The police said a Special Investigation Team was formed after the crime and a comprehensive probe led to the filing of a chargesheet against the 13 accused.

It added that the judgment stood as testimony to the force’s policy of zero tolerance towards attempts to fuel communal disharmony.