Life imprisonment for rape and murder of girl

After evading the law for nearly 14 years, a man was sentenced to life imprisonment by a court for the rape and murder of a teenaged girl at a village in Odisha's Balasore district.
District and Sessions Judge of Balasore V Jayashree while awarding life term to Pradip Kumar Mediniray yesterday also imposed a fine of Rs 30,000 for the rape and murder of a girl in June, 1995 at Kadam Sahi in Niligiri area.
In case of non-payment of penalty, the convict would have to undergo additional jail term for 18 months.
The court examined the statement of 12 witnesses and 20 related records and documents before delivering the judgement.

According to prosecution, on June 6, 1995 the girl was raped and murdered by three people and her body was recovered from a bush.
Besides Pradip, two others, Sanatan Behera and Umesh Chandra Rana of nearby Chatra Sahi village, were arrested for the crime. While Umesh was sentenced to life imprisonment, Sanatan was acquitted due to lack of sufficient evidence against him.
However, the main accused Pradip was absconding after availing time bail. After 14 years of hiding, he was nabbed in 2010 from Jajpur area and put to trial.