Odisha gangster, 15 others acquitted in 2005 murder case

Reported by Santosh Jagdev
Bhubaneswar, May 22:

Notorious Odisha gangster Anil Chhotray, along with 15 others, was today acquitted by a local court here in connection with the sensational Prachi Division double murder case here in April 2005.

The Second Additional District Sessions Judge Court, in its judgement, acquitted the accused persons in the shootout case due to lack of evidence.

Sources in the court said the Judge acquitted the accused as he found incoherence in the investigation carried out by the Nayapalli police and the State Crime Branch.

It may be recalled that two petty contractors Rubu alias Subash Chandra Das and Dhiren Kumar Sethi were chased and shot dead near Prachi Division Executive Engineer’s office in the heart of city on April 18, 2005, by three unidentified armed assailants over tender fixing issue.

An FIR was filed by Prakash Chandra Das, brother of deceased Subash, with the Nayapalli police following which the police began investigation into the case. A case (115/2005) was registered under sections 302, 120-B, 109 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code read with Sections 25 and 27 of the Arms Act against the accused.

“My client has been acquitted after the investigating agency failed to establish that the bullets fired on the deceased were fired from the weapon found from my client,” Anil Chhotray’s counsel Souri Mohapatra said.

“After the incident, police had arrested two persons – Gunu alias Babu Lenka and Dhadu alias Artatrana Pradhan – who had allegedly opened fire at the deceased and had also seized two firearms from them on April 22, 2005. Later, the police also arrested my client and also claimed to have seized firearms from him. But the forensic report failed to establish that the bullets were fired from these firearms,” said Mohapatra.