Thaindian News

Bhubaneswar, March 28 (IANS) Two personal security guards of the state police’s deputy inspector general were Monday sentenced to jail by a court in Orissa for his killing in “accidental firing” nearly five years ago, a lawyer said.

Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Jaswinder Singh was hit by a bullet fired from the gun of one of his personal security officers (PSOs), who claimed that it was a case of “accidental firing”.

Additional District Sessions Judge Suresh Kumar Patnaik held both Seshananda Sarangi and Ashish Sarangi guilty of Singh’s murder, government lawyer Prabhakar Patnaik told IANS over the phone, while giving details of the hearing at Jaypore in Koraput district, 521 km from here.

The court sentenced Seshananda to 10 years in prison and asked him to pay a penalty of Rs.20,000. He will have to spend two more years in jail, if he fails to pay the fine.

Ashish was awarded three-year jail term and ordered to pay a fine of Rs.10, 000. Non-payment of the fine would invite imprisonment for eight more months.

The court sentenced Seshananda for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and for colouring the same as Maoist attack. Ashish was sentenced for concealing facts and spreading misleading information about the crime, the lawyer said.

Singh, DIG of southwestern range, headquartered at Sunabeda town in Koraput district, was shot dead Oct 23, 2006 while he was on his way to neighbouring Rayagada district on official work.

He was accompanied by the PSOs at the time of the incident. The PSOs initially tried to mislead the investigating officials by saying that he was killed in a Maoist attack.

To support their Maoist-attack theory they even took the vehicle about 10 km away from the site and broke its glass by firing bullets, police aid.

But the investigators later turned focus towards the guards who changed their version.

They claimed that Singh was stopped en-route by some people near Badakutinga village in Koraput district to ask for donations for a local festival.

The guards claimed that when one of them tried to disperse the crowd using his official pistol, it went off accidentally and the bullet hit Singh in the head. He died on the spot.

Police held both the PSOs responsible for the incident and arrested them, three days after the crime.

The security guards landed in trouble after the driver of the DIG’s vehicle told police that they were not telling the truth.

S.N. Adhikari, a lawyer who defended the accused, said his clients will appeal against the judgment in higher court.

Paramjit Kaur, wife of the slain DIG, said her family would have been happier had the court sentenced the guards to life term.