Bhubaneswar: A Special Court in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday sentenced former MLA Ramamurthy Gomango to life imprisonment for murdering his wife.
In addition to that the court also slapped a fine of Rs 50,000 on Gomango. The court has ruled that in default to pay the fine Gomango has to undergo additional six months of imprisonment.
Further, the court sentenced Gomango to undergo imprisonment for another three years for the destruction of evidence.
In addition to that the court has slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on Gomango. On default to pay the fine, Gomango has to undergo additional imprisonment for another three months.
On Saturday the court convicted Gomango for murder and destruction of evidence.
Nearly 28 years ago in 1995, Gomango’s wife Sashirekha was found dead under suspicious conditions.
The half-burnt body of Sashirekha, was recovered from the bathroom of the former legislator’s quarters in the MLA colony in Bhubaneswar on August 29, 1995.
Initially, an unnatural death (UD) case was registered by the Kharvela Nagar police in the matter, but was later converted to a murder case.
Gomango was made an accused under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code. He was also arrested in the case but was released on bail in just two months.
During the course of the trial, the prosecution examined 11 witnesses and 15 documents.
Gomango committed the murder of his wife and tried to make it seem like suicide. The former MLA is in jail following his conviction on Saturday.
Gomango represented the Gunupur constituency in the Odisha Assembly, first from 1990 to 1995 as a Janata Dal MLA, and then from 2000 to 2004 as a BJP MLA. He lost the 2004 Assembly election to Hemabati Gamang, who fought on a Congress ticket.
Gomango had left the BJP in 2009 after the ruling BJD snapped ties with the saffron party.
He, however, rejoined the BJP in 2014 and unsuccessfully contested the Assembly polls that year.
