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Andha Nayak acquitted as no eyewitness implicated him
Bhubaneswar, Sept 23: Aniruddha Dandapat alias Andha Nayak, one of the 14 accused in the Graham Staines murder case, was acquitted as none of the eyewitnesses had implicated him, the trial judge in the case, M N Patnaik, said in his judgement.
Bhubaneswar, Sept 23: Aniruddha Dandapat alias Andha
Nayak, one of the 14 accused in the Graham Staines murder
case, was acquitted as none of the eyewitnesses had implicated
him, the trial judge in the case, M N Patnaik, said in his
judgement.
Dandapat was the only person to be acquitted among the 14
accused in the case.
Srikanta Purty, a prosecution witness, had alone stated that Dandapat, along with eight others, had taken shelter in his house on the night of January 21, 1999, Patnaik said in his judgement delivered yesterday. Purty came to his wheat field the next evening and was present in the congregation which later left for Manoharpur to attack the vehicles of the Australian missionary. It was, therefore, unsafe to hold him guilty of conspiracy on the uncoroborated testimony of the prosecution witness as his evidence was silent about the role played by accused Dandapat in the conspiracy barring his presence in the congregation at the wheat field, the judge said.
Bureau Report
Srikanta Purty, a prosecution witness, had alone stated that Dandapat, along with eight others, had taken shelter in his house on the night of January 21, 1999, Patnaik said in his judgement delivered yesterday. Purty came to his wheat field the next evening and was present in the congregation which later left for Manoharpur to attack the vehicles of the Australian missionary. It was, therefore, unsafe to hold him guilty of conspiracy on the uncoroborated testimony of the prosecution witness as his evidence was silent about the role played by accused Dandapat in the conspiracy barring his presence in the congregation at the wheat field, the judge said.
Bureau Report