**Titlagarh (Balangir)**: The Titlagarh Additional District Judge (ADJ) Court on Thursday awarded life terms to the four accused in the sensational murder of BJD leader Abhimanyu Sahu over a business rivalry.
The court awarded life term to Alok Das, Jagdish Bag, Naresh Singh and Santosh Rana, who had hacked the BJD leader to death on December 15, 2013.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on Alok Das, the main accused in the case, failing which he will have to stay in the jail for one more year.
Worth mentioning, Abhimanyu, husband of BJD leader and Titlagarh MLA Tukuni Sahu, was murdered by Alok Das and the other three at Bandhupala over a long-standing business dispute.
First, the district police probed the sensational murder before the Odisha Crime Branch took over the case.
“Accused Alok Das, Santosh Rana, Jagdish Bagh & Naresh Singh sentenced to life imprisonment under section 302 IPC & also ordered to pay fine,” said Crime Branch Special DGP BK Sharma in his tweet.
Accused Alok Das, Santosh Rana, Jagdish Bagh & Naresh Singh sentenced to life imprisonment under section 302 IPC & also ordered to pay fine
— Bijay Kumar Sharma (@BijayKumarShar7) July 28, 2017
“Crime Branch closely tracked the trial and because of dedicated efforts of Special Public Prosecutor could secure conviction of the accused. A Special Investigation Team was constituted which detected the blind case and arrested the four accused within a fortnight,” Sharma added.
