“Twelve people were convicted in the case. Ten of them were produced before the court as two of them fled while they were being taken to the court a few days ago. The remaining 10 have been given a death sentence,” said North 24-Parganas SP Rahul Srivastava. Passing the order, Additional District and Sessions Judge Parthosarathi Mukherjee said the diabolic murder fell into the rarest of the rare category and the punishment should act as a deterrent.

On February 22, 2008 the robbers had targetted the house of Bimal Das, a goldsmith who had a gold ornaments showroom on the ground floor of his house. The loot-and-murder saga began around 2.45 am and continued till 4.30 am, barely five minutes away from Bijpur police station on the northern fringes of the city.

At the time of the incident, two floors of the house were under repair while the family of four — Bimal, his wife Chandana, daughter Barsha (15) and son Bidyut (11) — was on the third floor.

As the robbers started looting the house, Chandana (42) tried to raise an alarm and was thrown off the balcony in front of other family members. She bled to death while the robbers went about collecting Rs 20,000 in cash and gold ornaments worth lakhs of rupees. Before leaving the house, they beat up Chandana’s son.