5 sentenced to 6 yr RI in 2007 Kandhamal riot case

Phulbani: A local court in Kandhamal district on Friday sentenced five persons to six years rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 each after convicting them in a riot case in the district.

Additional sessions judge S K Das of fast track court-I convicted the five persons under different sections of the IPC on charges of house burning, rioting and unlawful assembly with deadly weapons.

Failure to pay the fine would entail additional imprisonment of three months.

The convicts were involved in the riots at Balisga village under Baliguda police station limits in Kandhamal district on December 26, 2007.

The riots broke out in Baliguda area after an attack on VHP leader Swami Laxamananda Saraswati on December 25, 2007. Saraswati was later killed by unidentified miscreants at his Jalespeta ashram in Kandhamal on August 23, 2008.