By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Sep 27: Seventeen years after a 21-year-old student, Biplab Das, was found dead in Shillong in 2006, the High Court of Meghalaya on Wednesday convicted two individuals – Bernard Lyngdoh Phawa and Bonie Lyngdoh Phawa – in connection with the case.
The court found the duo guilty of committing murder and concealing evidence of the offence, and convicted them under Section 302 read with Section 201 of Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The High Court also reversed the “judgment and order impugned” dated March 26, 2019 wherein a trial court referred to the last-seen theory and disbelieved the prosecution case that it was Bernard and Bonie who were with Biplab at the time of or immediately prior to Biplab’s death.
In a 41-page order, a division bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice W Diengdoh said there was a common intention and accordingly, both the respondents (Bernard and Bonie) were found guilty of committing murder and concealing the evidence of the offence.
“Since this is not a rarest of rare case, both the respondents are sentenced to life imprisonment under Section 302 IPC and three years of rigorous imprisonment under Section 201 IPC. The sentences would run concurrently, in the sense that the respondents will serve rigorous imprisonment in the first three years and continue to remain in prison thereafter for life,” the court said.
“It was a dastardly act that had been plotted out with the common intention of obtaining money from the victim – whether or not it was by way of extortion or by kidnapping for ransom – and the victim died a gruesome death as a result of the plan executed by the respondents,” the court said, adding, “It is only just that the respondents face the appropriate consequence for their acts.”
Biplab, who was enrolled in an undergraduate mass communication programme at St. Anthony’s College in Shillong, was found not to have returned to his lodgings on the night of February 18, 2006. The next morning, a missing complaint was lodged with the Sardar Police Station in Shillong by his local guardian.
The court said the local guardian organised one or more teams of the missing man’s friends to go out on search for Biplab. By the evening of February 19, one of the search parties discovered a PCO in Mawroh from where Biplab had called a friend Nirvika Singhania at or about 8:30 pm the previous evening.
“The first respondent (Bernard) herein was a part of the search party that visited the relevant PCO, but while Bernard was waiting in a taxi nearby another friend of Biplab was told by the PCO owner that Bernard was one of the persons who had visited the PCO around the same time the previous evening,” the court said in its order.
“Bernard was arrested at 9 am on February 20, 2006 by Sardar police station and the memorandum of arrest indicated a charge of kidnapping for ransom…Following Bernard’s interrogation by the police, he referred to the second respondent (Bonie) who was arrested on February 23, 2006,” the court order said.
It further said that according to the investigating officer, the first respondent revealed on February 20, 2006 that a rope had been used for killing Biplab.
“The officer also testified at the trial that the dead body of Biplab was recovered on February 21, 2006, hinting that it was Bernard who led them to the dead body. The relevant rope was recovered on February 24, 2006,” the court order further said.