Tripura High Court (HC) Thursday acquitted Sushil Chowdhury, editor & proprietor of a vernacular daily newspaper of Tripura, in the sensational triple murder case. Senior advocate Piyush Kanti Biswas told AIR this afternoon that a HC bench of Chief Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Subhasis Talapatra today announced the verdict. Chowdhury was released from jail later this evening, who was sentenced to ‘life imprisonment till death’ earlier by a lower court, he informed.
Sushil Chowdhury was convicted under section 302, 201, 120(B), 113, 111 & 109 of Indian Penal Code. Three newspaper employees – Ranjit Chowdhury, Balaram Ghosh & Sujit Bhattacharjee were brutally murdered in Dainik Ganadoot, a Bengali newspaper office at Agartala on 19th May 2013. Initially police could not make any headway in that case.
However, arrest of Niyati Ghosh and Sushil Chowdhury had proved beneficial for the investigators. Niyati was the co-accused in the triple murder and wife of slain driver Balaram Ghosh. Investigating Officer Manas Paul of Agartala West Police Station submitted charge-sheet against Chowdhury, the mastermind of the case.
After hearing the case, the Additional District and Session Judge of West Tripura Kripankar Chakraborty found Sushil Chowdhury guilty in killing three newspaper employees and acquitted Niyati, a mother of 15-year old girl and who turned approver of the case, from all charges.