In a significant judgment, the Orissa High Court has convicted all the nine persons accused in the murder case of young journalist Parsuram Satpathy more than 40 years ago in Odisha’s Balangir district. Six of the nine convicted have died in the meantime.
A Division Bench of Justices Vinod Prasad and Sangam Kumar Sahoo pronounced the judgment on Monday after completing the hearing of the criminal appeal in March this year. The High Court convicted all the accused including former MLA Prasanna Kumar Pal, Artatrana Singhdeo and Dhobai Podh for various offences including section 302 (murder) of IPC.
The case relates to the death of Parsuram in the evening of November 29, 1974, at Balangir when a jeep belonging to a late Union Minister hit him while he was riding a cycle with a friend. Parsuram, then a known Bharatiya Lok Dal sympathiser, got severe head injuries and died on the spot.
While the then Chief Minister Smt Nandini Satapathy announced in the floor of the Assembly that Parsuram died in an accident, the government was forced to order a Crime Branch enquiry following a massive public outcry. A murder case was registered naming at least nine accused. But basing on prosecution charge sheet, a local lower court acquitted all the accused and subsequently the Orissa High Court too upheld the lower court’s verdict. However, Parsuram’s brother Hareram as informant in the case moved the Supreme Court in 1984 challenging the HC order. Setting aside the HC order, the Apex Court remanded the matter again to the High Court for retrial after observing that the case has a fierce political undertone. But it took another 31 years for the High Court to complete the hearing and pass the judgment. “I have argued the case before at least 16 different Benches in the High Court,” said Hareram’s advocate S. S. Swain.
