A local court on Tuesday awarded life sentence to two persons for their alleged involvement in the abduction of former Malkangiri district Collector R Vineel Krishna over five years ago.
The Malkangiri Additional District and Sessions Judge Court pronounced the judgement and held Tapan Saha and M Dibya alias Shanti guilty in the case. The court, however, acquitted Ghasi Pangi, another accused, in the case.
While Saha is a former Government employee, Dibya is a hardcore woman Maoist.
Reacting to the verdict, the then DGP Manmohan Praharaj said, “It was a difficult task then to nab the accused in the inaccessible and cutoff areas of Malkangiri. It was a challenge for us to identify those involved in the incident. We took the help of the Andhra Pradesh police and officials from other States.
The witnesses were apprehensive, for which we had to persuade them to give their statements in the court. I am satisfied with the judgement.”
It may be recalled that Vineel Krishna, who is now Bhubaneswar Smart City Project Director, and a Junior Engineer, Pabitra Mahji, were abducted by members of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) on February 16, 2011.