The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Three sentenced to life

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 06, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Three sentenced to life

Staff Reporter

They were charged with the murder of a business executive

BANGALORE: The I Fast Track Sessions Court on Monday sentenced Aprajit Biswanath Basak, a former management consultant, and two others to life imprisonment in the murder of a business executive at a start hotel here in May 2001.

Judge Anand R. Deshpande found Basak, Ramarakhsak Jaiswal, a cloth merchant, and Pankaj Kumar Roy, a former defence personnel, guilty of murdering K.R. Anantapadmanabha Acharya.

The court ordered the three to undergo 10 years rigorous imprisonment for trying to murder Acharya's friend, Narasimhan, and to undergo seven years rigorous imprisonment for robbing the two of Rs. 5.15 lakh in cash.

They have also been asked to undergo two years rigorous imprisonment for causing injuries using sedatives.

All the sentences, including the life imprisonment, will run concurrently. The judge also fined Basak Rs. 56,000, Jaiswal and Roy Rs. 9,000 each.

However, the 299-page judgment acquitted the accused of cheating, conspiracy, and possession of pistols and cartridges.

On May 5, 2001, Basak called Acharya, acting manager of Trade Wings Company, promising him dollars for a price lesser than the prevailing rate in the market. Acharya turned up with Narasimhan at the hotel.

While the former was invited to the room, Narasimhan was asked to wait at the restaurant.

While Acharya was administered sleeping drugs, strangulated and drowned in the bathtub, Narasimhan, who went to the room later, was drugged, gagged and strangulated. He was found unconscious in the room. The three perpetrators fled with Rs. 5.17 lakh in cash and two mobile phones.

The police found them as their pictures had been recorded by the close-circuit camera at a hotel in Chennai where they had earlier duped a businessman of lakhs of rupees. The police team arrested Basak and his associates who were allegedly planning the kidnap of a Bangalore-based liquor baron.

The prosecution, in its closing arguments, had sought death sentence for the accused.

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Karnataka