The District and Sessions court of Rayagada in Odisha on Tuesday convicted former School Inspector (SI) Netrananda Dandasena and punished him with life imprisonment in the sensational murder case of Itishree Pradhan, a contractual female teacher posted at Tikiri, in 2013.
The court pronounced the verdict on basis of around 680-page long charge sheet filed by the Crime Branch of the Odisha Police.
Meanwhile, the CBI is continuing investigation into this case since January 2015 following an order of Supreme Court of India to track down the persons who were directly involved in torching Ms Itishree. Hearing a PIL filed by Bengaluru-based Sudipta Lenka, the apex court had ordered a CBI enquiry into the incident.
Ms Itishree of Puri district was serving as a contractual teacher at Tikiri upper primary school in Rayagada district. She had continuously alleged before different authorities that SI Dandasena was harassing her.
She had filed a complaint against him at Tikiri police station following which she was threatened to withdraw the FIR. On October 27, 2013, a group of persons, yet to be nabbed, had reached her room on the school premises. They had torched her after dousing her with kerosene. She had succumbed to injuries in a private hospital in Visakhapatnam on November 1, 2013.
The incident had caused a furore throughout the State and on November 2, 2013, the Odisha government had ordered a Crime Branch probe.
