3 get lifer for TMC councillor's murder in Panihati
Telegraph | 18 December 2025
A court in Barrackpore sentenced three people to life imprisonment on Wednesday for the murder of a Trinamool Congress councillor of Panihati Municipality in March 2022.
On December 15, additional district judge Ayan Kumar Banerjee of the Barrackpore sub-divisional court found Sanjib Pandit, also known as Bapi, Amit Pandit, and Jiyarul Mondal guilty of murdering Anupam Dutta.
The Trinamool councillor was on his way home after buying medicines from a shop in Agarpara on the evening of March 13, 2022, when he was shot at point-blank range.
The detective department of Barrackpore Police Commissionerate took over the investigation. Sanjib was arrested hours after the murder. Later, the two others were arrested.
The high court had granted bail to Sanjib. He was re-arrested on Monday from the court compound after the trio were found guilty.
“The three accused have been asked to pay ₹1 lakh each as a part of the punishment. A councillor being shot dead in the open is the rarest of rare crimes...,” said Satyabrata Das, special public prosecutor.
The accused claimed that they were framed.
Dutta’s wife, Meenkashi, expressed satisfaction with the verdict but lamented that the three were not given the death penalty.
“...I had sought capital punishment. But will accept the court’s verdict,” she said.
The probe had revealed that Dutta protested Sanjib’s attempt to grab a piece of land in Panihati for real estate development.