Nischintakoili: A local court Monday expressed its serious displeasure over the inordinate delay in the probe into Mahanga double murder case as it issued a show cause notice to the investigating officer (IO) of the case. BJP leader and former Mahanga block chairman Kulamani Baral and his associate Dibyasingh Baral were brutally killed by miscreants January 2, 2021.
Taking cognisance of the inordinate delay in the investigation, the court of Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) issued a show-cause notice to the IO and directed him to furnish a status report on the progress of the probe by June 20.
Earlier, the JMFC court had ordered a fresh probe into the double murder after Kulamani’s son Ramakanta Baral moved the court challenging the deletion of the name of former minister Pratap Jena from the police charge-sheet. The Congress and the BJP have gone all out, training their guns on local ruling party leaders alleging their involvement in the case. The Congress leaders alleged that the prime accused, Prafulla Biswal, who was found dead under mysterious circumstances, was actually eliminated by the local leaders to keep his mouth shut in the case. Ramakanta had lodged an FIR with Mahanga police against 13 persons January 3, 2021.
Police, however, submitted a charge-sheet against 12 accused persons except the former minister Pratap Jena following which Ramakanta filed a protest petition.