Odisha gangster, 15 others acquitted in a shootout case

Bhubaneswar, May 22: Notorious Odisha gangster Anil Chhotray, along with 15 others, was today acquitted by a local court here in connection with the sensational Prachi Division shootout case in the capital city in April 2005.

Pic Courtesy: gunssavelives.net

The Second Additional District Sessions Judge Court, in its judgement, acquitted the accused persons in the shootout case due to lack of evidence.

Sources in the court said the Judge found incoherence in investigation carried out by the Nayapalli police and the State Crime Branch during their filing of charge-sheets at the court.

It may be recalled that two petty contractors Rubu alias Subash Chandra Das and Dhiren Kumar Sethi were chased and shot dead near Prachi Divisional Executive Engineer's office in the heart of city on April 18, 2005, by three unidentified armed assailants over tender fixing issue.

An FIR was filed by Prakash Chandra Das, brother of deceased Subash, with the Nayapalli police following which the police began investigation into the case. A case (115/2005) was registered under sections 302, 120-B, 109 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code read with Sections 25 and 27 of the Arms Act against the accused.

My client has been acquitted after the investigating agency failed to establish that the bullets fired on the deceased were fired from the weapon found from his client, lawyer of Anil Chhotray, Souri Mohapatra said.

“Police after the incident had arrested two persons Gunu alias Babu Lenka and Dhadu alias Artatrana Pradhan, who had allegedly opened fire at the deceased and had also seized two firearms from them on April 22, 2005. Later, the police also arrested my client and also claimed to have seized firearms from him. But the forensic report failed to establish that the bullets were fired from these firearms,” said Mohapatra.