BHUBANESWAR: Verdict in the sensational murder case of judo coach Biranchi Das will be delivered on December 13, about a year and three months after trial began in the Fast Track Court no. 3 in Bhubaneswar.
Judge Bibekananda Das on Tuesday turned down the defence plea for more time to submit documents related to the case announcing December 13 as the judgment day.
On April 13, 2008 evening, Biranchi was gunned down on the premises of the Judo Training Centre. After police named gangster Sandip Acharya alias Raja as prime accused in the case and launched a manhunt, he walked into a police station in Goa a couple of weeks later. But before that, the police arrested Akshaya Behera (known as Chagala, also an associate of Raja) who had given himself up at the studio of a news channel in Bhopal.
On August 1, 2009 when the trial court framed charges in the case, the two - Raja and Chagala - were charged with murder, criminal conspiracy, possession of illegal weapons and use of the same for the offence. The trial started on September 1, 2009.
During the trial, 31 witnesses deposed before the court. Twenty-eight of them were prosecution witnesses, though 49 were enlisted initially. Five of them were eye-witnesses including Shradhanjali Panda, Bebina Mallick, Prasant Patra, Sagar Jena and Biranchi’s wife Geetanjali Panda.
The defence produced one witness Bharat Bhusan Sahu, while there were two court witnesses. Rabindra Nath Swain, who was jailor of Baripada prison when Raja was housed there was one of the two court witnesses. The case drew huge attention given the fact that it involved the music album industry and the gangster who had professed his admiration for one of the stars.