Salipur, Aug 28: In a landmark judgment, the Salipur ADJ Court Wednesday delivered life imprisonment to nine accused on much-talked and publicized Mahanga double murder case.

However, the court acquitted one accused named Arvind Khatua due to lack of evidence in connection with the brutal murder of BJP leader Kulamani Baral and his relative Dibyasingh Baral on January 2, 2021.

A case was filed at Mahanga police station in this connection and 13 persons were named as accused in the case.

However, police had arrested 10 people and prosecuted them in court, while the main accused Prafulla Biswal, was absconding before he found dead under mysterious circumstances last year.

The nine accused have been identified as Bhikari Swain, Kshitish Acharya, Tulu Barik, Kailash Khatua, Panchanan Sethi, Lalit Baral, Chaitanya Sethi, Pramod Biswal and Umesh Khatua.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Mahanga double murder case triggered a political storm, alleging involvement of former BJD Minister Pratap Jena.

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