30 more convicted in 2008 Kandhamal riot case

A court in Odishas Kandhamal district on Thursday sentenced 30 people to two years rigorous imprisonment after convicting them in a case related to the 2008 communal riot, in which 47 people were killed.Anurag Dehuri, the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Kotagarh, also fined each of them Rs 1,000.

A court in Odisha’s Kandhamal district on Thursday sentenced 30 people to two years' rigorous imprisonment after convicting them in a case related to the 2008 communal riot, in which 47 people were killed.

Anurag Dehuri, the Judicial Magistrate (First Class), Kotagarh, also fined each of them Rs 1,000. Altogether 31 people attacked the house of a person at Bondopipli village Kotagarh police station on September 20, 2008, and damaged it. One of them died during the trial of the case which was lodged nearly 13 years ago.

Several other people were earlier convicted in this connection with the riot. Kandhamal district witnessed large-scale communal violence after a group of people, allegedly with the help of Maoists, gunned down prominent VHP leader Swami Laxmananada Saraswati and four others in his ashram on August 23, 2008. The violence continued for about four months during which 47 people were killed and about 4,000 houses burnt rendering many homeless. Senior Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda was arrested in connection with the case in 2014.