Bhubaneswar: The Additional District and Sessions Judge, Bhubaneswar, today acquitted six persons in the sensational murder of Jharpada Special Jail warder Manas Ranjan Nayak in the Odisha capital here in 2009.

The court acquitted Bikram Mallick, Mihirkant Tripathy, Shivram Sahu, N Venkat Rao Dora, Kanhu Charan Mishra and Debashish Bhoi due to lack of adequate evidence against them.

Altogether eight persons had been booked in connection with the murder of Nayak in front of Jharpada Special Jail in the capital city here on November 1, 2009. Two among them had died while facing the trial in the sensational case.

The court pronounced its verdict after examining 36 witnesses, 72 documents and other evidence gathered by the police.

As per the case records, Nayak was shot dead by some miscreants in front of the jail in the evening hours of November 1, 2009.

The incident had caused panic in the capital city. The police have arrested the accused persons after launching a probe into the incident.