4, Including Traffic Cop, Sentenced to Life Imprisonment for Bank Manager’s Murder in Tripura

Agartala: A Tripura court has handed down a life imprisonment sentence to four individuals, including a traffic policeman, for their involvement in the brutal stabbing of a bank manager four years ago. The verdict was delivered by Judge Subhasish Sharma Roy of the West Tripura District and Sessions Court. Each of the convicted individuals has also been ordered to pay a fine of ₹50,000, failing which they will face an additional six-month jail term.

The unfortunate incident took place in the heart of Agartala, in the Jackson Gate area, on midnight of August 3, 2019. Bodhisatwa Das, the then branch manager of United Commercial Bank (UCI) in Dharmanagar, North Tripura district, fell victim to the attack by four individuals: traffic sub-inspector Sukanta Biswas, businessmen Sumit Chowdhury, Sumit Banik, and Omar Sharif alias Shoaib Mia. The motive behind the murder was a heated altercation between the bank official and the group, who were engaged in a drinking session on the roadside.

Upon receiving a First Information Report (FIR), the police promptly arrested the four suspects and conducted a thorough investigation, subsequently filing a chargesheet. The court, after carefully examining the evidence and hearing statements from a total of 56 witnesses, pronounced the accused guilty on Friday and delivered its judgment.

Special Public Prosecutor Samrat Kar Bhowmik emphasized the advocacy for life imprisonment rather than capital punishment, considering the case’s circumstances and concluding that it did not meet the criteria of being the “rarest of the rare” case.