Mahanga Case: BJD MLA Pratap Jena Skips Deposition Before Odisha Court, Seeks Exemption From Personal Appearance

Cuttack: Senior Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MLA and former Odisha Minister Pratap Jena on Tuesday failed to appear before a court in Cuttack which had summoned him in connection with the sensational Mahanga double murder case.

Instead of personally appearing before the JMFC Court at Salepur in the district, the BJD leader presented his stand through his lawyer. The JMFC Court was urged to grant him exemption from personal appearance as per section 205 of the IPC, sources said.

Notably, a special messenger had handed over Salepur JMFC court’s summons, pertaining to Mahanga double murder case, to the BJD legislator at his official residence in Bhubaneswar.

A few days after taking cognisance of offences against the former law minister as an accused in the murder case, the court had on October 6 summoned him to appear before it on October 31 (Tuesday).

“After going through the statements of the complainant, witnesses, and other available materials on record, we found that a prima facie case punishable for the offences under Section 302, 506, 120 B of the Indian Penal Code is made against the accused namely Pratap Kumar Jena,” the court had said in its September 25 order.

On January 2, 2021, BJP leader Kulamani Baral, 75, who was the block chairman of Mahanga, and his associate Dibyasingh Baral, 80, were hacked to death by unidentified miscreants near Jankoti village in Odisha’s Mahanga tehsil while returning home by a motorbike.

The prime accused in the case, Prafulla Biswal, was also found dead under mysterious circumstances near Govindpur in Tangi of the district later.