CUTTACK: The court of Additional Sessions Judge, Salipur on Wednesday delivered its judgment in the sensational Mahanga double murder case, convicting nine of the accused and awarding life imprisonment to them. The court, however, acquitted one of the accused Arabinda Khatua due to lack of evidence.
The convicts Panchanana Sethy, Kailash Chandra Khatua, Lalit Mohan Baral, Khitish Kumar Acharya, Chaitanya Sethy, Umesh Chandra Khatua, Bhikari Charan Swain, Malaya Kumar Barik and Pramod Biswal have been sentenced to undergo life imprisonment and pay a fine of Rs 10,000 each for the offence punishable under Section 302/34 of IPC.
All the convicts have been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment (RI) for a period of three years each and pay fine of Rs 5,000 for the offence punishable under section 27 of Arms Act. Additionally, Panchanana Sethy, Kailash Chandra Khatua, Lalit Mohan Baral, Khitish Kumar Acharya, Umesh Chandra Khatua and Bhikari Charan Swain have also been convicted under Section 120 (B) of IPC.
BJP leader and former Mahanga block chairman Kulamani Baral and his associate Dibyasingh Baral were hacked by the convicted persons near Nrutanga village on the evening of January 2, 2021. While Kulamani was declared dead at Mahanga CHC, Dibyasingh succumbed to his injuries at SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack.
Kulamani’s son Ramakant Biswal had filed an FIR in Mahanga police station against 14 people including the then MLA and Law minister Pratap Jena alleging their involvement in the double murder.
Mahanga police arrested total 10 persons and submitted chargesheet, dropping the name of Jena. While Prafulla Biswal, one of the prime accused died mysteriously in a road mishap at Tangi, three other accused Bijay Kumar Baral, Umakant Swain and Santosh Ranjan Pani are yet to be arrested.
Ramakant then filed a protest petition in the court of JMFC, Salipur, following which the court directed IIC, Mahanga police station to take up further investigation into alleged involvement of Jena and collect and preserve call details records (CDRs) of the accused persons.
In the meantime, the informant Ramakant died and his son Ranjit Baral appealed the court to fight the case on behalf of his deceased father. Later, the JMFC court relying on witnesses had directed inclusion of the name of Pratap Jena in the list of accused persons in October 2023.
Jena then moved the Orissa High Court in November 2023 seeking exclusion of his name from the list of accused. Though the high court has already completed hearing on his case since May 2024, the verdict is said to have been kept reserved.