Former Odisha MLA awarded life imprisonment in 6-yr-old double murder case

It took the police four years to reach the influential accused

The court sentenced the former MLA to life imprisonment after two years of hearing. 

Raigarh:A local court has sentenced a former MLA from Brajarajnagar in Odisha to life imprisonment in an infamous double murder case, involving mother and daughter as victims, took place six years back. It took the police four years to reach the influential former MLA from BJD Anup Sai. The court has also sentenced him to 7 years of imprisonment for hiding the evidence.

According to the case, on May 7, 2016, KamleshGupta, a resident of Sambalpuri village under Chakradharnagar police station, had lodged a report with the police regarding dead bodies of a woman and a girl lying on the way to the Maa Shakambari plant on Hamirpur road. Police registered a case and started investigation. Villagers of nearby villages were interrogated, , CCTV footage were examined and data of several mobile towers were analysed.

Police investigation identified the deceased as KalpanaDas, daughter of Rudaksha Das and the girl as her daughter Babli. On the basis of evidence found from the call details of the deceased’s mobile, former BijuJanata Dal MLA from Brajarajnagar, Odisha, AnupKumar Sai was arrested.

The accused confessed to the crime and told police that in 2004-05, after the Kalpana Das’s divorce, she had once come with her father to his place. They developed love affairs. The MLA said that he used to take her to a house in the name his wife in Bhubaneswar. Kalpanahowever started blackmailing demanding to get married and get the house in her name apart from demand for money.

Tired of blackmailing, MLA took extreme step

Anup Kumar told police that he was fed up with the blackmailing by Kalpana and therefore he planned totake extreme step. For this, on the night of May 5, 2016, both mother and daughter were sent from Bhubaneswar to Jharsuguda and he himself followed them in a private vehicle to Jharsuguda. The MLA arranged the stay of Kalpana and her daughter in a hotel in Jharsuguda. On the next day, on the pretext of getting married in Raigarh, they all left with their driver in the car.

First hit the road and then crushed by the driver

The accused MLA told Kalpana and her daughter to move to Hamirpur to his relative’s place as there were no rooms in Raigarh hotels, The accused dropped the mother and daughter on the way to the Maa Shakambriplant on Hamirpur road and killed both of them by hitting them in the head with an iron rod. To hide the evidence of murder, the accused asked his driver Barman Toppo to crush the body of mother and daughter by running the vehicle over them several times.