Bhubaneswar: The Orissa High Court has disposed off the Anjana Mishra gangrape case after the final hearing on Monday. The HC said the case was closed on the ground that all the accused were arrested and the conspirators are dead.
The Odisha Government and CBI submitted that there was no ground to prolong the case as all the accused in the case including the prime accused, Biban Biswal, have been arrested and the major parties in the case JB Patnaik and Indrajit Ray are dead.
The hearing of the case was carried out by a bench comprising Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice BP Routray.
The court said the main accused Bibekananda Biswal alias Biban, who was underground for 22 years, arrested from Pune on February 22. The other two accused Padia and Dhirendra Mohanty were arrested earlier in 1999.
The rape victim Anjana Mishra herself in June 2002 had prayed the High Court for the arrest of prime accused following CBI’s slow pace of investigation. Her counsel Bibhu Prashad Tripathy had filed the petition at Orissa High Court in this connection.
A division bench comprising the Chief Justice P K Balasubramanyan and Justice A S Naidu first took up the hearing on the matter on August 21, 2002.
Commissioner of Police Sudhanshu Sarangi said at a presser here on February 22 that Biban was arrested from Pune through operation ‘Silent Viper’. He then boasted that they have succeeded in arresting the main accused of Anjana Mishra gangrape case when the CBI failed to do even after 22 years.
The gang-rape case had created a hue and cry in the State as the then Chief Minister JB Patnaik and his friend former Advocate General Indrajit Ray were accused of being involved in the case. JB Patnaik had to step down and Giridhar Gamang took over the reins from him following the furore.
