The sentence was pronounced by the court of additional CJM A K Kapri at Kalyani in Nadia, which held the two guilty of murder of one Khagen Majhi.

The convicts, inspector Shankar Chatterjee and sub-inspector Ajay Roy, who were then posted at the Kalyani police station, have been taken into custody and sent to Krishnagar jail.

Assistant public prosecutor Swapan Majumder said, “It was in 2000 when the district police superintendent received the state Human Rights Commission’s recommendation and likewise, a case was initiated. In the case, the ACJM court today pronounced the two accused guilty of murder and sentenced them to life imprisonment.”

According to sources, Majhi, a resident of Barohat colony in Kalyani, had criminal records. On the night of April 29, 1997, Chatterjee, the then officer in-charge of Kalyani police station, along with Roy, raided his home and demanded money.

They took Rs 25,000 in cash, two bottles of alcohol and a ‘shol’ fish from Majhi’s pond. They then dragged him to their jeep and took him to an abandoned factory half-a-kilometre away. The cops then shot the victim from close range.

In police records, the incident was shown as an encounter in which the officers shot him dead in self-defence. Following the incident, a human rights NGO filed a complaint with the state Human Rights Commission against the officers on May 15, 1997.

The SHRC, in its recommendations to the state government in November that year, said criminal proceedings should be started against the officers.

It was only in 2000 that the state government initiated a case and submitted a charge-sheet against the officers, though under Section 304 A (death due to negligence).

However, on Tuesday, the ACJM court found the officers guilty of murder (Section 302).

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is hearing the case that Damayanti Majhi, mother of Khagen, filed in Kalyani court against the officers in 1997. The victim’s brother, Nagen, was also allegedly abducted in June 2004 and is still missing.

“We are happy over the verdict. They dragged my husband out of the home during midnight and killed him, despite the fact that we paid them. The police officers wanted more money which we failed to give. All these years, we were threatened not to tell the truth in the court. But we said what had happened,” said Kakoli Majhi, the victim’s wife, at Kalyani court.