Sitting Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Legislative Assembly Manoj Pradhan was on Thursday sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for six years by a fast track court for a murder during the 2008 communal riots in Orissa's Kandhamal district. Fast track court-II judge C R Das convicted Pradhan for the murder of Bikram Nayak, a Christian from Budedipada of Tiangia village under Raikia police station limits on August 26, 2008.
Kandhamal district in Orissa had witnessed widespread violence after the murder of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and four of his aides at his ashram on August 23, 2008.
A local court on Wednesday sentenced eight persons to four-year rigorous imprisonment,while acquitting six others, including a BJP legislator, in a case of setting ablaze houses during last year's communal violence in Kandhamal district of Orissa.
With law and order situation improving in Orissa's riot-scarred Kandhamal district, day curfew was suspended on Monday even as the death toll rose to 16 with the recovery of two bodies.
The houses, a church and a prayer hall were either torched or damaged by miscreants at Raikia, G Udaygiri, Daringibadi and some other areas, sources said.
With the southern districts of Ganjam, Gajapati and Kandhamal receiving heavy rainfall due to cyclone Hudhud, the local administration has started preparations for floods if such a situation arises.
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