Berhampur: The Ganjam district and sessions court here on Thursday sentenced 11 persons to life imprisonment in connection with the 2013 Shanti Mishra murder case.
About a dozen persons in six motorcycles had killed 31-year old Shanti Mishra, also a criminal, by triggering blasts on January 29, 2013. His body was recovered from a nearby pond under Gosaninuagaon police limits. Twelve people were directly involved and four others indirectly in the murder conspiracy, which was allegedly hatched in Circle Jail, Berhampur.
Around 20 criminal cases were pending against Mishra.
Eleven years after the incident, the court convicted 11 people of them – Rakesh Panda, Tukuna Behera, Satish Kumar Sahu, Mrutyunjay Sabat, Santosh Panigrahi, Budu Das, Ganesh Panigrahi, Sheik Jafar, Babaji Rana, Shankar Padhi, and Shankar Behera and sentenced them to life imprisonment, based on the statements of 26 witnesses and other evidence.
Shankar Padhi was the main accused in the murder case. He along with Ichili Panigrahi alias Santosh and Rakesh Panda alias Doctor Manga hatched the conspiracy.
The 12th accused Mauz Mishra has been absconding since being out on bail.
