Jogi Sabar murder: Court awards lifer to two accused after 25 years!

Bhawanipatna: The family of Jogi Sabar was finally delivered justice 25 years after his brutal murder as the Kalahandi District Sessions Court awarded life imprisonment to two accused today.

Giving details to the media, public prosecutor Bhabani Shankar Mishra said there was a murder in Bondakotara village under Junagarh police station limits 25 years ago on April 2, 1992 in which a villager Jogi Sabar was hacked to death by a group of villagers.

Police had later registered a case and arrested 30 persons. But all of them were acquitted by the District Sessions Court on October 16, 1993.

However, the informant later filed a revision petition (46/94) in the court to which the latter had ordered for a fresh trial of the case. During the trial, police found evidence against two Nakamudia Damba and Someswar Pan and their complicity in the murder case. As Nakamudia died on July 20, 2011, the court awarded life term to Someswar under Section 302 of the IPC and a fine of Rs 5000 non-payment of which would amount to extra 2-month rigorous imprisonment.

Referring to the case, Mishra said in the morning on April 2, 1992, the life convict along with Nakamudia had forced Sabar to give his goat to be sacrificed during Astaprahari Jagna in the village. But as he refused, there was an altercation. Later a group of villagers attacked Sabar with sharp weapons killing him on the spot. The murder had taken place between 4 pm and 5 pm.