PUNE: The Pune Sessions Court on Thursday sentenced businessman and IIT-Kharagpur alumnus Subojit Sadan Basu to life imprisonment for strangling his 23-year-old sister Priyadarshini Basu at their Bavdhan flat in 2010, holding that the prosecution had established a complete chain of circumstantial evidence proving his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
Additional Sessions Judge A K Sharma also sentenced Basu to one year’s simple imprisonment for attempting suicide under Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Both sentences will run concurrently. The court imposed fines of ₹10,000 for the murder and ₹1,000 for the suicide attempt, and granted him set-off for the two months and 18 days already spent in custody.
The judgment, delivered on September 24, came in a case registered at Hinjewadi police station under Sections 302 and 309 of the IPC. The case had remained pending for more than 16 years. The offence took place on April 14, 2010, while the chargesheet was filed in July that year. Charges were framed in August 2014 and evidence began in February 2016.
According to the prosecution, Basu strangled Priyadarshini around 4.25am at Aparajita Apartments, Bavdhan. He later cut his left wrist with a knife and consumed phenyl in an alleged suicide attempt. A former professor, Arbind Shankar Roy, told police that Basu called him shortly after the incident and said he had strangled his sister and was attempting suicide.
{{/usCountry}}According to the prosecution, Basu strangled Priyadarshini around 4.25am at Aparajita Apartments, Bavdhan. He later cut his left wrist with a knife and consumed phenyl in an alleged suicide attempt. A former professor, Arbind Shankar Roy, told police that Basu called him shortly after the incident and said he had strangled his sister and was attempting suicide.
{{/usCountry}}The court relied on the evidence of nine prosecution witnesses, including police personnel, medical officers, a spot panch witness, an independent witness, a cellular company nodal officer and investigating officers. The post-mortem report attributed Priyadarshini’s death to asphyxia caused by throttling, with neck injuries consistent with manual strangulation.
Rejecting the defence plea of insanity, the court said only legal insanity, and not medical insanity, can constitute a defence under Section 84 of the IPC. It held that the relevant question was whether Basu was incapable of understanding the nature and quality of his act at the time of the offence.
The court also rejected the defence claim that Priyadarshini died while trying to prevent Basu from committing suicide.
While noting Basu had no previous criminal antecedents, the court treated the manner of the killing as an aggravating circumstance. However, it held that the case did not fall within the “rarest of rare” category warranting the death penalty and awarded life imprisonment.