A file photo of Sneha Swakhyar Samal entering the doctor’s house
post news network
Bhubaneswar, August 16: October 14, 2014. It was a Tuesday. A medical representative (MR) had visited orthopedic surgeon Dr Atulya Chandra Meher with a bouquet in his hand at his residence at Khandagiri.
Once in, Sneha Swakhyar Samal (40), the medical rep, stabbed the doctor’s caretaker Prashant Behera and Prashant’s son Minu Behera with a knife to death while fatally injuring the caretaker’s wife Runu Behera.
Samal stabbed the three in quick succession because they had resisted his entry. As Dr Meher had come down by then, Samal held him by collar while keeping the knife in other. But, Samal was a bit tired and asked Atulya’s wife Mini Meher to get a glass of water. Having quenched his thirst, Samal stabbed the doctor to death too.
The incident was captured on CCTV cameras installed at the doctor’s house. After Samal was captured by locals, police registered a case under Section 302 (murder) of IPC.
The evidence against Samal was strong, and in police lingo, it was an open-and-shut case. There were three eyewitnesses to the gruesome incident: Mini, Atulya’s mother and Runu Behera. The weapon of crime was seized and the fingerprints tested positive.
Yet, it’s been two years and the trial hasn’t started. Just before the charges were to be framed and the trial was to commence in the first ADJ-cum-additional sessions court, judge Niranjan Sahu retired in November 2015.
For eight months now, the court does not have a judge while criminal and vigilance cases pile up. The court sources told this paper that 500 cases are pending with the court.
Ashok Mangaraj, a senior lawyer and advisor to Bhubaneswar Bar Association, said the bar has given a number of memoranda to High Court Chief Justice and had got only assurances in return.
“Justice delayed is justice denied. The absence of a judge in the court causes pain to several litigants. The Collegium must appoint a judge now,” Mangaraj said.
Mangaraj recounted a case against BDA officer Ranjita Mishra who allegedly issued a fake cheque to his client Rina Patnaik in 2007. “It’s almost ten years now, but the cheque bounce case hasn’t come to hearing stage, bringing only hassle and mental agony to litigants,” he said.
With six months into the proceeding, Mangaraj said, JFMC court has gone defunct in 2007 which was regularised in 2010. “When a new judge was appointed, fresh summons were issued to defence and then the case was again transferred to SDJM,” Mangaraj said.
Rina Patnaik’s litigation has been pending before the additional sessions court for eight months.
Shivani Meher, the doctor’s daughter, who settled in the US after the incident, told Orissa POST, “I’ve lost my father. We want justice. But right now, we have to do nothing but wait.”
“Couple of days before the incident, I spoke to Dad and Mom on Skype. It was a general conversation about each other’s health. Dad wanted to visit me,” Shivani said.
Shivani’s counsel Sarfaraz, who is assisting prosecution in the triple murder, said, “The fingerprints and CCTV footage examination are all done at the Central Forensic lab and the reports are positive. Had there been a judge, we would have moved ahead.”
The police filed chargesheet February 9, 2014 in the triple murder case. But, the defence pleaded that Samal was mentally ill. The then judge Sahu wanted to be sure about Samal’s state of mind before framing of the charges.
For the next six months, Samal remained under observation of psychiatry department of the SCB Medical College, Cuttack. Just a week before the judge’s retirement in November 2014, the hospital reported to the court that Samal was mentally sound but was a drug addict.
“Samal who used to visit the doctor had harboured grudge against him for not prescribing his medicines. He says he was on drugs that day. But, being an addict is different from being mentally unsound,” Sarfaraz said.
There were 49 witnesses in the triple murder case and 86 articles seized as evidence but all are of little purpose until they are produced before a judge.
