Bhubaneswar: In what came as a clean chit for senior Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader Pratap Jena in the Mahanga double murder case, the Orissa High Court Tuesday quashed the September 25, 2023 ruling of the Salipur JMFC court that had taken cognisance of offences against him as an accused in the sensational case. “The court said that the entire criminal proceedings against Pratap Jena was quashed.
The order against which we have approached the High Court has now been junked,” said Jena’s lawyer Anshuman Ray. Jena was the accused No-13 in the double murder case that took place at Mahanga in Cuttack district in 2021. The local police had excluded Jena’s name while filing the first chargesheet in the case.
Subsequently, son of one of the victims approached the Salipur JMFC court seeking the inclusion of Jena’s name. Based on statements of the complainant, witnesses, and other available materials on record, the court ordered that a prima facie case punishable for the offences under Sections 302, 506 and 120B of the IPC is made against accused Jena. The court directed the local police to reinvestigate the case against Jena.
Subsequently, the senior BJD leader moved the HC against the lower court’s order. Hearing the petition filed by Jena, the HC quashed the order of the Salipur JMFC court. “A political conspiracy was hatched to defame me. Now, it has fallen flat as the HC gave a clean chit to me today,” an elated Jena said after the HC order.
Notably, BJP leader Kulamani Baral, who was the block chairman of Mahanga, and his associate Dibyasingha Baral were brutally murdered in Mahanga in 2021. Later, the prime accused in the case, Prafulla Biswal, was found dead under mysterious circumstances near the Govindpur area in Tangi of Cuttack district.