Kendrapara: A local court Thursday awarded life imprisonment to two persons including a sorcerer and his associate after convicting them in a 2015-child sacrifice case under Marshaghai police limits in the district.
The district judge, Basudev Panda, convicted Choudhury Abinash Das and his associate Baikunthanath Das alias Bajrangi and awarded them life imprisonment Thursday. The judge also slapped a penalty of Rs 50,000 on them.
In default, the two have to undergo an additional two years of imprisonment. The judge also awarded them five years of imprisonment and a penalty of Rs 10,000 under Section-201 of IPC.
According to the case diary, the incident occurred when villagers of Gokhapada village under Marshaghai police limits were busy in celebrations of Mahavishuva Sankarnti in the Hanuman temple of the village April 13, 2015. Rajkishore Nayak, 8, alias Raja, son of Purnima and Pratap Kumar Nayak had also been to the temple to witness the celebrations.
The boy’s mother and villagers searched for him after he failed to return home despite a long period of time. They were searching for him when they found his decapitated body in the Luna river near the village.
Police registered a case and started an investigation over a complaint filed by the boy’s mother. Later, police arrested the two and produced them in court on the basis of clinching evidence against them. Public prosecutor Manas Behera and APP Sanjay Kumar Jena pleaded the matter on behalf of the state government.
PNN