Posting this news published in the pioneer for perusal of all
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MURDERED SCRIBE'S FAMILY GETS JUSTICE AFTER 40 YRS
Wednesday, 06 May 2015 |
PNS | CUTTACK | in Bhubaneswar
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In a significant
judgment, the Odisha High Court has convicted all the nine persons accused in
the murder case of young journalist Parsuram Satpathy more than 40 years ago in
Balangir district. Six of the nine convicted have died. The court sentenced the
accused to life imprisonment. A Division Bench of Justices Vinod Prasad and
Sangam Kumar Sahoo pronounced the judgment on Monday after completing the
hearing of the criminal appeal in March this year.
The court convicted all
the accused, including former MLA Prasanna Kumar Pal, Artatrana Singh Deo and
Dhobai Podh, for various offences including those under Section 302 (murder) of
IPC. The case relates to the death of Parsuram in the evening of November 29,
1974 at Balangir when a jeep belonging to a late Union Minister hit him while
he was travelling by a bicycle with one of his friends. Parsuram, then a known
Bharatiya Lok Dal (BLD) sympathiser, died on the spot with severe head
injuries.
While the then Chief
Minister Nandini Satapathy announced in the Assembly that Parsuram died in an
accident, the Government was forced to order a Crime Branch enquiry into it
following a massive public outcry. A murder case was registered naming at least
nine accused. But based on the prosecution charge-sheet, a local lower court
acquitted all the accused, and subsequently the Odisha High Court too upheld
the lower court’s verdict. However, Parsuram’s brother Hareram as informant in
the case moved the Supreme Court in 1984 challenging the HC order.
Setting aside the HC
order, the apex court remanded the matter again to the HC for retrial after
observing that the case has a fierce political undertone. But it took another 31
years for the HC to complete the hearing and pass the judgment. “I argued the
case at least before 16 different Benches in the HC,” said Hareram’s advocate
SS Swain.
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