Mahanga Double Murder: Orissa HC Rejects Bail Plea Of 6 Accused

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court on Thursday rejected the bail applications of the six accused arrested in the Mahanga double murder case.

The HC denied bail to Kailash Khatua, Malaya Barik, Bhikari Swain, Khitish Acharya, Chaitanya Sethi and Arvind Khatua who are lodged in jail since last year.

BJP leader and former Mahanga block chairman Kulamani Baral and his associate Dibyasingha Baral were brutally murdered on January 2 last year.

Around a month later, Prafulla Biswal, one of the accused, was found dead near Tangi.

On December 10 last year, Inspector-in-Charge of Mahanga police station Nihar Ranjan Mohanty appeared before the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Court, Salepur, in connection with the double murder case.

The court had issued notice to the IIC seeking explanation by December 10 as to why action should not be taken against him as per CrPC for not appearing before it.

He was also issued a notice for not submitting the reinvestigation status report and Call Detail Records (CDRs) of the accused in the case.

Earlier, the court had ordered a fresh investigation into the alleged involvement of Law Minister Pratap Jena in the double murder case.

On November 20 last year, the court had expressed displeasure over the slow pace of investigation into the double murder that had taken place on January 2.

Based on the petition filed by Ramakant, son of Kulamani Baral, the court had directed Mahanga police to re-investigate the case and submit status report and CDRs of the accused persons by November 25.