As per India’s Juvenile Justice Act, a person below 18 is treated as a minor and is tried as a such when he commits a crime. There is a clear distinction between an adult and a minor in the eyes of the law. After all, children make mistakes; they’re children – that’s what they do. One could argue that the crimes committed by minors, like shoplifting, robbery, hitting someone, killing a deer, or maybe running over someone and then fleeing, are generally petty. The solution is not to lock them up but to rehabilitate them. But there are a few rare cases that blur the moral line between a child and an adult, a minor and a mature person, and a kid and a killer. This is one such case that redefined the phrase “childish innocence”. This is the story of 16-year-old Sajal Barui.
A Childhood of Turmoil
Sajal Barui’s life was already turbulent and traumatic before he committed the heinous crime that would shake Kolkata. His father, Subal Barui, had left his first wife, Neoti Barui, with whom he had a son. Subal then had an affair with another woman, Minati, and Sajal was born. This unstable start set the tone for Sajal’s troubled childhood.
When Sajal was still a young boy, his father returned to his first wife, Neoti, and took Sajal with him. This reunion was not a happy one. Sajal’s new home became a place of torture. He recounts how he was subjected to brutal punishments by his stepmother and elder stepbrother. They would burn him with hot irons and cigarettes, leaving physical and emotional scars. This continuous abuse created deep-rooted anger and resentment within young Sajal, a storm brewing beneath the surface.
By 8, Sajal had lost touch with his biological mother. The feeling of being abandoned by both his parents added to his pain. It pushed him further into isolation and bitterness.
Midnight Horror
On November 23, 1993, at midnight, Dipankar Banerji, a resident of Shubham Apartments in Dumdum, Kolkata, was half asleep and dozing off. Suddenly, two frantic residents called him to the 4th floor of the apartment. They were shouting his name in a frenzy. Dipankar was worried, so he slipped into his shoes and rushed upstairs.
When he reached the 4th floor, he heard something wailing like a dog when you step on its tail. On closer look, the sound wasn’t of an animal but of a human, a resident of the flat. The flat was of Subal Barui. It sounded like someone was calling for help from inside. Dipankar called the Dumdum police station, and the cops arrived at the flat. They broke open the flat to find a horrific and chilling scene that made them shiver.
They felt a sense of fear as they moved from one room to another in the flat. They had no idea what they would see in the Barui household, which would shock the whole of Kolkata.
A House of Horrors
As the police entered the flat, they saw Subal Barui’s 16-year-old son, Sajal Barui, tied to a chair with a rope next to the TV in the drawing room. He was alive. Dipankar and the police were relieved for a moment. But that relief was short-lived.
In the next room, they found Subal Barui’s wife, Minati Barui, tied to the back of a chair with a rope. Her hands were tied, and her head was tilted to one side. According to the court documents, she was covered with a bed sheet. Minati Barui was dead. The horror was far from over.
In another room, they found Subal Barui lying on the floor with injuries and his legs tied with a rope. In the same room, Sajal’s elder stepbrother, Kajal Barui, was also found dead tied to a chair.
Having come to investigate the noise from a random flat, the Kolkata police found themselves at a familicide. But there was one person alive, tied, gagged and groaning in pain: Sajal Barui.
The Confession
The situation was so bizarre that the police turned to Sajal for answers. They couldn’t even imagine his situation. Sajal had just witnessed his family’s massacre, and the authorities were asking him to recount his tragedy. He told the police that he and his stepmother were watching TV around 7 pm the previous night when 7 unknown men entered their flat, gagged him and tied him to the chair with a rope. Then they took his stepmother to another room, tied her to the chair, and killed her. His father and stepbrother were outside at that time, and he had no idea what happened to them as he had fallen unconscious.
The Kolkata police started with Sajal as the victim. But soon, the suspicion fell on him, and he became the accused. Sajal couldn’t give much details of what happened and had no significant injuries or signs of struggle. Why would the killers kill the whole family and leave Sajal, a witness to the crime, alive and unhurt?
On further questioning, Sajal told the police what really happened. The story, he said, was more gruesome than anyone could have ever imagined. The straight-faced culprit behind the triple murder in the Barui household was Sajal Barui himself.
The Crime
Sajal, just 17 years old, confessed to killing his whole family in a nonchalant tone. On November 22 night, Sajal arrived at the flat with 5 friends, all between 16 and 17 years old. They had come prepared for what was to come. Before reaching Shubham Apartments, they bought rubber gloves, sharp cutting instruments, coconut rope, black cloth pieces, and more to aid the crime to come.
First, they found Sajal’s stepmother watching TV alone. Sajal and his friends gagged her and tied her to a chair in the bedroom. The same fate awaited his stepbrother Kajal and father Subal when they returned home. Sajal and his friend Ranjit tried to strangulate all three but could only kill the stepmother. Undeterred by their failure, they hacked Kajal and Subal with the sharp knives they had brought.
The whole thing took almost 3 hours. After committing the crime, they decided to cover it up. On Sajal’s instruction, they washed the weapons with mustard oil and water and burned all other evidence.
Exhausted, they took out some Bengali sweets from the fridge, ate their fill and decided to leave some money as payment, just like an American serial killer they had heard about. To make it look like a burglary gone wrong, they opened all the almirahs and cupboards and took all the cash and jewellery. Finally, they gave Sajal some superficial injuries and tied him to a chair in the drawing room, left to the flat and closed the door behind them.
The Killer Uncovered
Sajal’s plan seemed perfect, but it was falling apart. The police couldn’t believe his story. Why would a gang of robbers leave a witness behind, and why would that witness be unhurt?
After more questioning, Sajal confessed. He said he planned and executed the murders with his friends. The motive was bizarre. Sajal wanted to grab his father’s property. He claimed to have been tortured by his father, stepmother and stepbrother. He was burned with hot iron and cigarette butts, and his head was jammed inside the refrigerator by his stepmother.
The result was the same whether these were true or just his imagination. Sajal had killed his family. He was arrested and tried before the Additional Sessions Judge at Barasat District Court. The trial court held that the crime was rarest of rare and sentenced Sajal to death, later reduced to life imprisonment.
Throughout the trial, Sajal and his friends showed no remorse. When the death sentence was pronounced, they clapped and sang in chorus.
A Life of Crime
Sajal and his friends were in prison, serving a life sentence. Instead of thinking of their crime, they sang and tapped their feet to the latest Hindi film songs. They looked like they were on an extended holiday rather than serving time for a heinous crime.
A couple of years later, Sajal’s health deteriorated, and he was admitted to Chittaranjan National Medical College with a kidney problem. From here, Sajal escaped on September 15, 2001, despite the hospital premises being full of police personnel.
His escape was as bold as it was clever. Sajal often asked his girlfriend to bring beer inside the hospital and drink it with the guards on duty. On the night of his escape, he hosted a beer party and invited the two guards who were supposed to keep him in. He mixed the beer with sleeping pills, and after they fell asleep, Sajal just walked out of the hospital.
The Fugitive
Sajal was on the run, living a life of crime. He escaped to Mumbai, married and started committing crimes under different names. After a failed sting operation, Sajal took shelter with a local goon, Hathkata Bishu (one-armed Bishu), in Lake Town, Kolkata, and worked under Kamal. He continued his life of crime till he was finally arrested in February 2003 under the name Sheikh Raju, a petty thief. A jailer who had met Sajal during his previous imprisonment recognized him.
Sajal was sent back to Presidency Jail in Dumdum. He formed connections with other notorious criminals, including terrorist Aftab Ansari and convicted murderer Debashish Chakraborty. This criminal network was exposed, and Sajal was transferred to Alipore Central Jail.
After serving many more years in prison, Sajal was released in August 2010. In June 2011, he was arrested again for robbery. After serving more time, he was finally released in 2017.
Sajal Barui’s life is a story of tragedy, violence and crime. From a tortured child to a killer, his journey is a reflection of how abuse and neglect can shape young minds. Though he committed heinous crimes, Sajal is now a different person, blending in with the crowd. The Sajal Barui case still haunts those who followed it, a reminder of the thin line between innocence and evil, even in the simplest of childhood.
Did you find Sajal Barui’s story compelling? Should he have been tried as an adult for his heinous crimes? Please share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below.
All sources for this story have been obtained from the Internet Archive.
