40-year-old man gets death sentence for 5 murders in Tripura

A court in Tripura’s Khowai district sentenced a 40-year-old man to death for murdering five people, including his two daughters, elder brother, a police inspector and a passerby, in a killing spree last year.

The court of district and sessions judge Sankari Das, after hearing the arguments, awarded capital punishment on Wednesday. “Initially, it appeared that Pradip Debroy was mentally ill but later doctors certified that he was mentally fit. The court passed the verdict in less than a year,” government advocate Bikash Deb said.

Debroy, a resident of Uttar Ramchandraghat area in the district and a daily-wager by profession, had suddenly turned violent on the midnight of November 26 last year, killing his two daughters – Aditi and Mandira – with an iron rod.

When his elder brother, identified as Amalesh Debroy, came to the scene, he was also killed by the convict on the spot, assistant inspector general Jyotishman Das Chowdhury said.

After murdering the three family members, the convict came out on the road and started randomly attacking passersby, resulting in severe injuries to two people going on a rickshaw, of whom one person, Krishna Das, succumbed to his injuries at Khowai hospital.

As Debroy created havoc on the road, Khowai Police Station officer-in-charge Satyajit Mallik along with a large police contingent reached the spot and tried to take him into custody.

But in the melee, Debroy attacked Mallik and he later died at a hospital in Agartala. Eventually, police took him into custody. After conducting a speedy investigation into the murders, police submitted the chargesheet with the court.However, the reason behind the murders was not immediately known.