Orissa High Court Upholds Life Sentence of Six in 1996 Loan Dispute Murder Case

The Orissa High Court has affirmed a 1998 trial court verdict convicting nine men for murdering two persons in Kendrapara in 1996 over a ₹1,000 loan dispute.

Six surviving convicts, on bail since 2010, have been ordered to surrender within 15 days to serve their life term, failing which police will arrest them. 

The Court dismissed defence contentions regarding delay in lodging the FIR, non-examination of independent witnesses, and alleged investigation lapses. The court held that the prosecution’s ocular evidence was trustworthy and corroborated by medical reports.

The Bench further ruled that the killings were carried out in prosecution of the unlawful assembly’s common object, attracting liability under relevant provisions of the IPC.

[Chandia @ Chandi Sethy & Ors. v State of Odisha]