Cuttack, Aug 1: With a great relief to a former Legislator from CPI Nagireddy Narayan Reddy, the Orissa High Court suspended the execution of life sentence that had been imposed on the former Chhatrapur MLA in connection with murder case of a Police Inspector.
A division bench of the Orissa High Court comprising Justice Debabrata Dash and Justice V Narasingh suspended the execution of the life sentence ‘taking into account the submissions, the impugned judgment and the happening in the incident including the role of the appellants as those emanate from the evidence and also the surrounding circumstances’.
Consequently, November 5 was set as the next date for the appeal hearing by the bench, which also ordered that “further execution of the sentence imposed upon the appellants (Reddy and two others) by the trial court shall remain suspended pending disposal of the appeal.”
In addition to providing the relief, the bench ordered Reddy and the other two appellants to be released on bail under whatever terms and circumstances the trial court would find appropriate.
Inspector Binoba Meher of the reserve police was killed on June 18, 1998, when an unidentified person hurled a bomb while he was managing a law & situation
Under section 302 of the IPC, at least 22 persons including Reddy were chargesheeted following investigation.
On July 31, 2023, the court of additional district judge-cum-special judge for MPs and MLAs had sentenced Reddy and 12 others to life imprisonment for the death of Meher.
Reddy and two other convicts in the case had filed criminal appeal in the high court challenging their conviction. They had prayed the High Court for suspension of execution of the life sentence imposed on them.
