Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has sentenced four migrant workers to life imprisonment in the triple murder case of a retired IISc professor and his family that had shocked Bengaluru nearly 17 years ago.
The division bench of Justice H.P. Sandesh and Justice Venkatesh T. Nayak delivered the verdict while hearing an appeal filed by the state government challenging the trial court’s earlier acquittal of the accused.
The High Court also directed the state government to take precautionary measures under migrant labour and criminal control strategies. The court said authorities should monitor migrant workers, verify their background and identity, and create a registration portal so that information about them is easily available to the public.
The court observed that in many cases house owners or employers do not verify the background of migrant workers before hiring them. Because of this, some people commit crimes and escape. The court said labour and criminal laws must be properly implemented and background checks should be made mandatory.
Trial court acquitted
The High Court allowed the state government’s appeal against the trial court order that had acquitted the accused. The court directed the four convicts—Suchitra Halder, her husband Deepak Halder, Mohammed Sarbal and Bidan Shikari—to surrender before the trial court within two weeks.
The murders took place in 2009. In 2016, the trial court had acquitted the accused. The state government later challenged that order in the High Court, which has now set aside the acquittal and sentenced them to life imprisonment.
What was the case
Retired Indian Institute of Science (IISc) professor and well-known mathematician Purushottam Lal Sachdev (71), his wife Rita (62) and their son Munna (35) were murdered at their residence in Bengaluru in 2009.
The accused, who were migrant workers from West Bengal, were working and staying at the professor’s house. They allegedly killed the three family members and fled to West Bengal after stealing gold jewellery from the house.
Police arrested the four accused about 20 months after the crime.
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