CUTTACK: The Odisha High Court on Tuesday quashed the order of the court of Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC), Salipur that had taken cognisance of offences against BJD leader and former minister Pratap Jena as an accused in the Mahanga double murder case.
On September 25, 2023, the JMFC had ordered that after going through the statements of the complainant, witnesses, and other available materials on record, it found a prima facie case punishable for the offences under sections 302, 506, 120 B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) is made against the accused Pratap Jena.
Jena had then approached the high court against the order. The high court granted Jena interim protection against possible action as an accused in the case on November 2, 2023. The protection was extended on different dates of hearing on Jena’s petition.
While delivering the judgment on the petition on Tuesday, the single judge bench of Justice Gourishankar Satapathy said the JMFC’s order was unsustainable in the eye of law. The proceeding initiated against the petitioner (Pratap Jena) was without jurisdiction as his name was added as an additional accused who was not charge-sheeted even after two rounds of investigation.
The court of Sessions (trial court) which had already assumed jurisdiction over the matter also did not add the petitioner as an additional accused in the case. “In the interest of justice, the impugned order being unsustainable together with proceeding against the petitioner is liable to be quashed,” Justice Satapathy ruled.
BJP leader Kulamani Baral, the then block chairman of Mahanga, and his associate Dibyasingha Baral were brutally murdered by miscreants on January 2, 2021, while they were returning home on a motorbike. Initially, the double murder case was registered on the complaint filed by Ramakant Baral, son of Kulamani. Later after Ramakant’s demise, his son Ranjit Baral had renewed the complaint.
The court of Additional Sessions Judge, Salipur, on August 28 this year convicted nine of the accused and awarded life imprisonment to them. However, the trial court acquitted one of the accused Arabinda Khatua due to lack of evidence.