Calcutta High Court Acquits Three On Death Row In Woman’s Dismembered Body Case

Last Updated:July 21, 2025, 16:58 IST

Court observed glaring lapses in the investigation and prosecution's failure to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

When the case reached the High Court, it found that there was no evidence placing any of the accused at the crime scene around the time of the incident. (Representative image)

More than a decade after a woman’s mutilated body was found abandoned at Sealdah Railway Station, the Calcutta High Court has acquitted all three people sentenced to death for her alleged murder, declaring that the prosecution had “hopelessly failed" to prove its case.

In a judgment delivered on July 17, 2025, a bench of Justices Debangsu Basak and Md. Shabbar Rashidi set aside the 2019 conviction of Surajit Deb, his partner Lipika Poddar, and Sanjoy Biswas, who was accused of being hired to dismember and dispose of the body. Court observed glaring lapses in the investigation and prosecution’s failure to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

The case stemmed from a chilling discovery on May 20, 2014: a woman’s headless torso was found wrapped in a quilt at Sealdah station, with her severed limbs and head stuffed in a trolley bag nearby. A cash memo found with the body led police to identify the deceased as Jayanti Deb, Surajit’s estranged wife.

The couple had married in 1994 and lived in a Lake Town apartment until marital discord drove them apart. Surajit moved out with their daughter and began living with Lipika Poddar, with whom he allegedly conspired to kill Jayanti. Police claimed that Sanjoy Biswas was brought in to dispose of the body after the murder.

But when the case reached the High Court, it found that there was no evidence placing any of the accused at the crime scene around the time of the incident. Not a single eyewitness saw them near the Lake Town flat where Jayanti lived. Forensic evidence, including bloodstained articles recovered from various locations, lacked the necessary legal footing, as it wasn’t properly put to the accused under Section 313 CrPC.

The linchpin of the prosecution’s case, a statement by Sanjoy Biswas recorded under Section 164 CrPC, also crumbled under scrutiny. The court called it “exculpatory," noting that it only described how Sanjoy allegedly helped dispose of the body under threat and didn’t implicate him or the others in the actual murder.

The judges criticised the trial court’s reliance on a “non-existent" criminal conspiracy and found that the theory of joint participation was built on speculative links rather than hard proof.

The bench stressed that capital punishment demands a standard of evidence that was entirely absent in this case.

With this, the High Court not only dismissed the state’s plea to confirm the death penalty but also acquitted the trio of all charges. They were ordered to be released unless wanted in any other case, subject to furnishing bonds as per Section 437A of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Salil Tiwari

Salil Tiwari, Senior Special Correspondent at Lawbeat, reports on the Allahabad High Court and courts in Uttar Pradesh, however, she also writes on important cases of national importance and public interests fr...Read More

Salil Tiwari, Senior Special Correspondent at Lawbeat, reports on the Allahabad High Court and courts in Uttar Pradesh, however, she also writes on important cases of national importance and public interests fr...

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