BHUBANESWAR: A court of the additional district and sessions judge, Anandapur on Wednesday sentenced five persons to death for the brutal murder of former block chairman, Ramachandra Behera of Dhakota village, in March 2019.
The judge convicted the accused Ajit Kumar Prusty, Sanjeev Kumar Prusty, Arun Prusty and his brother Alekha Prusty, and Purna Chandra Boitei under sections 302, 120B, 201 of 34 of IPC and sections 25 (1A) and 27 (1) of Arms Act. The murder had taken place on March 25, a few days before of the 2019 general elections.
The court classified it as a rarest of rare case as the accused attacked Ramachandra’s legs with sharp weapons and chopped off his left hand in front of his family members and villagers. They also cut the palm of his right hand and three fingers and displayed them to the villagers in a bid to terrorise them. The video of the incident had gone viral.
As per additional public prosecutor Ashwini Kumar Mallick, around 53 witnesses were examined, 94 documents and 30 material objects produced before the court during trial of the case. A juvenile, also involved in the gruesome killing, will be tried in a children’s court, he said.
Ramachandra’s daughter Mina Rani had lodged a complaint with Ghasipura police alleging, on March 25 morning, a person asked her father to come out of his house to discuss something. When he went outside, Ajit, Arun, Alekha, Sanjeev, Purna and a juvenile attacked him with sharp weapons and even cut his hands.
Ramachandra’s family rushed him to sub-divisional hospital in Anandapur from where he was referred him to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack. He had succumbed while being taken to SCB.
The miscreants, after committing the crime, fled towards Baitarani river dam on four motorcycles and displayed the severed limbs of the deceased on the way. On March 27, police arrested Ajit, Sanjeev and Purna, all natives of Badaektali village. Arun, Alekha and the juvenile of the same village were arrested in the next few days.
During investigation, police found out that Ajit and Ramachandra had previous enmity. Ramachandra was an independent MLA candidate from Ghasipura constituency during 2014 elections. He was supposed to join BJD on March 26, the day after he was murdered.