Post News Network
Bolangir, June 12: Former Kantabanji MLA Prasanna Pal, the third and last surviving convict in sensational murder case of then young leader Parshuram Satpathy in 1974, surrendered before the district sessions judge here Friday.
Later, he was sent to the district jail. When asked for his reaction by the reporters, Pal said he
was innocent and has already moved the Supreme Court against Orissa High Court’s verdict which
pronounced life imprisonment for nine persons after convicting them in the Satpathy murder case.
Six of the nine convicts had already died till the date of the judgment May 4.
Pal was elected thrice as MLA from Kantabanji assembly seat.
The police arrested convict Dhobei Podha from Kulerbahali village under Sadar police limits May 15 while the second convict Artatrana Singhdeo surrendered in the court June 10.
All of them have been lodged in Bolangir district jail.
Satpathy, a young leader and a journalist, was crushed to death on Kalamandal Road in Bolangir November 29. 1974.
His two elder brothers Hareram Satpathy and Sitaram Satpathy had lodged complaints against nine persons alleging it to be an organised political murder.
However, the district court and High Court acquitted the nine persons in the case.
The complainants had then moved the Supreme Court which asked the High Court to start a fresh hearing of the case.
Following the judgment by the High Court, the district sessions judge issued warrants against the three surviving convicts and asked Bolangir SP Deepak Kumar to take action against them. Though the police arrested one of the convicts Dhobei Podha May 15, the two others were on the run.
But the duo surrendered in the court one after another as the court said that legal action would be taken against the bailers as well as the convicts if they failed to surrender within four weeks of issuance of the warrants.
Six other convicts who died earlier are – Premlal Suna, Gyana Seth, Gunanidhi Ghasi, Prafulla Bhoi, Sugyan Shandha and Tikaram Agrawal.
