A 2019 case of triple murder of a family in Murshidabad has been revived on social media with false communal claims, with posts suggesting that they were killed for being Hindus by a group of 'Rohingyas'.
BOOM found that the incident being recounted in the post had no communal angle, and was solved with the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator, who was also a Hindu.
The post, containing an image—seemingly of a mother, father and child—was shared by a verified X user with a lengthy caption in Hindi. The caption described a gruesome episode of a group of Rohingyas breaking into the house of the Hindu family, and murdering the parents and their child.
A part of the caption translates from Hindi as, "In Murshidabad, West Bengal, a 35-year-old man named Gopal Pal (Bandhu Prakash Pal), his 30-year-old pregnant wife and 8-year-old son - all were brutally murdered. Their only crime was that they were Hindus and lived very close to Mamata Bano's Muslim-dominated area in West Bengal."
Click here to view an archive of the above post.
Old Incident Revived With Communal Twist
Bandhu Prakash Pal (35), a school teacher in Murshidabad’s Jiaganj was gruesomely hacked to death along with his eight months pregnant wife Beauty Pal (30) and their six-year old son, in their home on October 8, 2019. The bodies of the couple and their son were found on Tuesday afternoon. Stab wounds were found on all the three bodies but the child was also strangulated with a towel, the Hindustan Times reported citing a police officer.
BOOM had previously reported on this case of triple murder from Murshidabad on October 11, 2019, when it had gone viral as a case of political murder.
Posts sharing the same photo of the family, along with some gruesome images from the crime scene of their murder, had claimed that the family was murdered because the father had joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
BOOM had contacted Biplab Roy, RSS’ Prachar Pramukh of South Bengal, who told us, “Pal had recently joined the RSS. However, it is hard to believe that he was killed because of joining the Sangh. He was too junior to have lost his life along with his family’s. We are not ruling out a personal motive behind the murder.”
Former President of BJP's West Bengal unit Dilip Ghosh also denied any political angle, saying it was "unlikely that a karyakarta who had attended just a few meetings, would be killed."
Suspect Found And Convicted, Given Death Penalty
By October 16, 2019, the police had already arrested the main suspect, Utpal Behra, who later confessed to the crime, according to an India Today report which carried the same photo of the family.
According to reports by The Hindu, Deccan Herald, and Indian Express, Behra had befriended Pal, and then invested money in some saving scheme that latter was running. Pal had allegedly refused to give a receipt of payment to Behara, starting of a feud between the two. The reports cited Superintendent of Police Mukesh Kumar, who stated that their conflict continued for a while and eventually led to Behra committing the murders.
According to a report by the Indian Express from August 25, 2023, Behra was found guilty of the murders and sentenced to death by a fast-track court in Berhampur.
