Twelve persons, including a doctor and an expelled CPI-M leader, were convicted by a local court here today for the murder of a doctor of a government hospital, Dr Sushil Pal ten years ago for refusing to terminate a pregnancy.
Sessions judge of Howrah Court Tanmay Gupta held the 12 guilty of murdering Pal on July 2, 2004. The quantum of punishment will be announced tomorrow.
Among the convicted persons was a local CPI-M leader Biswajyoti Bose who was later expelled from the party. He owned the nursing home in Bally where the murder took place.
Other convicts included Dr Piyali Das, Shubhanarayan Ghosh, Amit Banerjee and Prahlad Sarkar.
Bose and Dr Das were convicted under section 302 (murder), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and section 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of IPC.
Dr Pal, a gynaecologist at the Serampur Walsh Hospital in Hooghly district, was killed in the nursing home in Bally in Howrah district and his body was found from the bank of the Saraswati river in Sankrail.
Dr Pal went missing after leaving his residence on Karaya Road in Kolkata for his workplace at the Walsh Hospital on the fateful day. His body was recovered next day from the riverside in Howrah district.
According to the prosecution, Pal was killed because he refused to abort a five-month pregnancy.
One of the accused committed suicide during the trial.
