Kolkata: A 31-year-old man, who spent the last eight years in jail for alleged murder, has been acquitted by a Kolkata court, which faulted police for not sending the alleged murder weapons — a bloodstained pillow and a cotton belt — for forensic examination.
Raja Paik had been arrested in Sept 2017 for the murder of his friend, Chiranjib Gupta (24). Chiranjib’s mother had lodged a complaint with the Garfa police after she found him lying dead with a pillow on his face on the first floor of their home in Garfa.
On Thursday, Alipore sessions court judge Surajit Mandal, setting Raja Paik free, said prosecution had failed to explain why the bloodstained pillow was not sent for forensic examination by the investigating agency. “That aspect,” he said, “creates a doubt with respect to the manner in which the investigation has been handled.” The judge also expressed surprise that a cotton belt, claimed to be the “murder weapon”, was similarly not sent for any forensic examination.
The prosecution had also argued that Paik’s possession of Chiranjib’s cellphone linked him to the killing. The court refused to buy this logic, questioning why a murderer would hold on to such evidence, knowing full well that it would incriminate him.
Judge Surajit Mandal expressed disbelief that Paik had held on to Chiranjib’s cellphone — “vital evidence”, according to prosecution — in spite of knowing that it would implicate him.
“Any person who commits murder would try to erase physical evidence that may implicate him,” the judge reasoned. “One who commits murder is not expected under natural circumstances to create evidence against himself. If a person, after committing murder in cold blood, commits theft of an article such as the mobile phone belonging to the victim, he must have the impression that theft of this kind of article, such as a mobile phone, would be a good piece of evidence to help the investigating agency to reach out to him.”
Chiranjib’s mother, in her police complaint, had mentioned that Chiranjib was a drug addict and a habitual drunkard. She said she had gone to buy medicines for her daughter and returned at 6.30pm to find her son dead. The daughter had returned home from school at 3pm, when Chiranjib opened the door for her. Though not sure, she named Poncha, Lonka, Bapi, Jhontu and Amit, who frequented her home, as possible suspects.
Curiously, the police never questioned the suspects named in the FIR. The judge commented on this. The complainant, he said, had named in the FIR “many boys who used to come to her house and consume drugs with her son. It is best known to the investigating officer why he did not consider it necessary to focus the investigation on the other associates of the victim, who used to visit him regularly.”
“Only because the accused was a frequent visitor to the victim and was his partner in all sorts of activities not considered ‘normal’ in society, he cannot be framed as the murderer,” the judge said, acquitting Paik.

Currently, piling is underway on either side of the Palarivattom junction as part of constructing the 11.20-km viaduct for the metro’s Kakkanad extension.
| Photo Credit: FILE PHOTO

With the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) expected to shortly finalise the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the elevated highway on the 17-km-long Aroor-Edappally NH 66 Bypass corridor, Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL), which is constructing the Kochi Metro viaduct for the project’s phase-two extension to Kakkanad, has submitted pertinent details of the proposed viaduct at Palarivattom Bypass Junction to the NHAI, to ensure that the alignments of both projects, which would criss-cross at the junction, do not clash.

The NHAI had in March directed the Bhopal-based consultancy firm preparing the DPR for the elevated highway to revise the contents of the report after taking into account the vertical and horizontal clearances for the metro viaduct that has been proposed over the existing four-lane flyover at Palarivattom Bypass Junction.

“The firm is exploring ways to finalise an optimal alignment for the six-lane elevated highway at Palarivattom, after taking into account the design of the alignment for the metro viaduct. The NHAI has forwarded the details submitted by KMRL to the DPR consultancy firm,” official sources said.

As per the NHAI’s tentative plan, a pair of three-lane highways is to be built on either side of the four-lane flyover at Palarivattom and on either side of the six-lane flyovers at Vyttila and Kundannoor. This plan would be finalised based on the DPR, it is learnt. Currently, piling is underway on either side of the Palarivattom junction as part of constructing the 11.20-km viaduct for the metro’s Kakkanad extension.

Sources in KMRL said they have handed over to NHAI the general arrangement drawing for the 60-metre-long span of the metro viaduct that would be built perpendicular to the NH Bypass, over the Palarivattom flyover.

“The span would be an open-web girder/truss structure and would hover 14 metres above the road surface. It would be built 5.50 metres above the existing flyover and the proposed elevated highway, while the pile caps for the span would be located beyond the Right of Way (ROW) of the NHAI,” they said. Apart from these aspects, the metro agency has agreed to submit, in due course, details like the work programme, construction and erection methodology of the span and allied structures at the Palarivattom junction, along with their designs, they added.

Chennai: The decades old, multi-crore rupees Kalaimagal Sabha real estate scam, involving the fate of nearly 6.4 lakh depositors and 3,088 properties across the state, came alive on Monday when Madras high court impleaded 33 district collectors in the case and directed the registration department to disclose the entire asset particulars.
A division bench of Justice MS Ramesh and Justice N Senthilkumar sought to speed up the settlement for 6,39,460 people who had invested in the now-defunct Kalaimagal Sabha’s real estate scheme, by directing the district collectors to identify the land parcels and begin the liquidation process.
The inspector-general of registration earlier informed the court that the properties of Kalaimagal Sabha were spread over Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, as well as Delhi. In Tamil Nadu, the properties are situated in 33 districts.
“Since the very preliminary requirement of identifying the properties, with and without encroachments, has not been done to date, we deem it appropriate to hand over this responsibility to the district collectors concerned in order to identify the properties in the State of Tamil Nadu, as a first step,” said the judges.
Earlier this month, the court directed the state govt and the special officer to report the particulars of the properties, but the govt pleader submitted that they were yet to identify the properties. The court said they had taken into account the fact that 6,39,460 subscribers have been waiting for decades to receive the benefits of their investments. “In spite of 3,088 properties being available for disposal, they are yet to be liquidated,” the court observed.
The court has suo motu impleaded all 33 district collectors and instructed them to depute the tahsildar surveyors to inspect the properties and report to the district collectors regarding the nature of the properties along with encroachment details. The court has sought a preliminary status report on Tuesday, April 29.