A Murshidabad district court on Thursday ordered capital punishment for a person convicted of hacking to death three members of a family at Jiaganj in Murshidabad in 2019.

As additional district judge Santosh Kumar Pathak delivered the verdict in the triple-murder case, convict Utpal Behera, 33, broke down, while family members of those killed on the morning of October 8, 2019, welcomed the order.

On October 8, 2019, the bodies of Jiaganj's Lebubagan Primary School teacher. Bandhuprakash Pal, 41, and his seven-year-old son Bandhuangan were found in a room at their rented home in Jiaganj. The body of his pregnant wife Beauty, 31, was lying in another room bearing several injury marks.

The incident occurred on Bijoya Dashami and a milkman had seen Utpal leaving the house of the Pals in blood-stained clothes.

The nature of the gruesome murders, which included a minor and a pregnant woman, and the sensation it had stirred across the state prompted police to put its probe on the fast track. Within seven days of the murder and after working on various leads, including CCTV footage, the police arrested Utpal.

Police said Bandhuprakash used to run an insurance agency in his wife's name. Utpal had bought an insurance policy from the couple and he used to regularly pay his premium to them. However, when Utpal came that his hard-earned savings had not been deposited with the insurance company, he lost his cool.

He entered into an altercation with the Pals. On Bijoya Dashami, Utpal arrived at the Pal's home armed with sharp-edged weapons.

He then mixed sedatives in the drinks of the trio and later hacked them to death before leaving in the morning. Since his arrest, Utpal has been in jail.

After 14 months of the murder and with an intention to expedite the legal proceedings, Bivas Chatterjee was recruited from Calcutta to pursue the case as a special public prosecutor.