Naba Das murder: Accused Gopal Das had vowed in Temple to kill minister, always kept gun loaded: CB chargesheet

A little less than six months after minister Naba Kishore Das was shot dead in broad daylight, OTV has accessed the 500-page charge sheet filed by the Crime Branch that reveals shocking details of the gruesome high-profile murder.

The chargesheet reveals that Gopal was under the impression that Minister Naba and his supporters would eliminate him because he had dared to stop some vehicles belonging to the minister and his supporters during MV checking while he was posted at Badmal Police station.

In its chargesheet, Crime Branch mentioned that Naba Das had got furious on Gopal Das at the spot and his supporters had allegedly threatened him.  Later, in another incident, Gopal Das had handed over an application of his nephew to Naba in a public function, but the latter’s response was found to be full of annoyance.

During interrogation, Gopal also confessed that the staff of Das also did not respond well and seemed to avoid him. These sorts of development created an impression that Naba was upset with him and there was an imminent threat to his life. 

All this gradually frightened him so much that, he got sleepless nights thinking that he would be killed by the followers of Naba in the near future. Hence, he made up his mind to kill Naba before he was killed by him or by his followers, the chargesheet reveals.

During interrogation Gopal admitted that he was preparing to kill the minister for some time. In order to succeed in his plan, he had also visited Samaleswari Temple, Sambalpur with his brother and observed his mundane and took oath to kill Naba Das anyhow in near future.

The chargesheet highlights that Gopal had also made efforts to shoot him during the inauguration of the statue of late Kishore Mohanty in the Brajarajnagar area but could not get an opportunity. Since that day, he had kept his service pistol always loaded. 

Gopal came to know about the scheduled programme of Naba at Brajarajnagar on January 29. Taking this opportunity, he started preparations to kill Naba. He sold his gold ring to a goldsmith and sent away his brother, who run a hotel, and other staff to Berhampur, fearing Naba’s supporters would kill them after the incident.

He also dropped his brother and other staff at the railway station and then got ready with his plan. Before leaving for the spot, he wrote the reason for his killing of Naba on 25-30 medical prescription slips with a red sketch and concealed them in his underwear. He wanted to throw the slips in the crowd in case people tried to kill him after the firing.

Fortunately, he was safely captured by police and not harmed by people. Later, he tore those papers and flushed them in the toilet of Jharsuguda Airport Police Station to destroy the evidence.