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A court in Odisha sentenced Nagireddy Narayan Reddy, 67, and 12 other defendants to life in prison on Monday for the 1998 explosion that killed a police inspector while protesters were opposing the Tatas' acquisition of land for a steel mill.
After some individuals tossed a bomb at the police, a reserve inspector named Binay Meher was killed in an explosion. He was only 35 years old when he passed away.
Due to the protest in June 1998 over Tata Steel's land acquisition for a steel factory, Meher was sent to the village of Sindhigaon to monitor any potential law and order problems. In order to build the envisioned shore-based mega steel factory, the state government began purchasing about 7,000 acres of property in the villages of Sindhigaon, Badapaur, Patrapur, Kalipalli, and Paikapada in February 1996.
The steel plant was never successful.
He was speaking with his group of police officers at Sindhigaon village on June 18, 1998, when a bomb was thrown at him, ripping his stomach open. On his way to the hospital, he passed away. Reddy was one of the 22 people named as suspects, and each of them was accused of murder in accordance with section 302.
Rajkumar Dash, extra district and sessions judge for Berhampur, delivered the decision.
Meher was scheduled to join another posting the next day and was undergoing a transfer at the time of his death. However, the superintendent of police for Ganjam had asked him to remain.
Reddy, who was imprisoned when he was elected to the Odisha assembly in 2004 from the Chhatrapur assembly segment, claimed the verdict was wholly biased. Government influence was present. Farmers and the general public did not receive justice. We feel let down. He declared as he was being led away to jail, "I'll go to a higher court to get justice.
