Berhampur: After spending nearly 10 months in jail, former Chhatrapur MLA Nagireddi Narayan Reddy, who is a key accused in the killing of a policeman in Odisha’s Ganjam district, walked free on Tuesday after the Orissa High Court granted him and two of his accomplices bail.
Ten others, previously sentenced to life imprisonment along with Reddy, will be released from the jail on Thursday, sources said.
In August 2023, a district court sentenced the former CPI MLA and 12 others to life imprisonment for their involvement in the death of Reserve Police Inspector, Binoba Meher, during a clash in June 1998 over land acquisition for a steel plant by Tata Steel.
Reddy, who represented the Chhatrapur assembly constituency from 2004-2009, had then said that he and others convicted would challenge the verdict in the higher courts.
The incident took place on June 18, 1998, when a clash broke out between agitators and police during a meeting called by the administration at Sindhigaon village. Meher was killed in the confrontation and a case was later registered under Section 302 of the IPC against Reddy and 22 others, of whom eight persons have died.
Reddy was also arrested in December 2011 for violence against land acquisition at Erasama by South Korean steel behemoth POSCO, which later pulled out of the project.
