Maoist in jail for 6 years gets bail from Orissa High Court after SC nudge

A key Maoist chief, who has been in jail for six years, in Odisha was on Wednesday granted bail by the Orissa High Court, per week after the Supreme Court requested it to eliminate his bail petition expeditiously.

The single decide bench of justice AK Mishra, granted bail to 47-year-old Nachika Linga’s lawyer Prashant Jena stated the court docket didn’t set any situations for his bail and left it to the trial court docket in Koraput for a similar. Linga is prone to be launched as soon as the trial court docket executes the order.

Linga, who headed the Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangh, an overground organisation of CPI-Maoists in Narayanpatna and Bandhugaon blocks of Odisha’s Koraput district, had surrendered earlier than the Odisha police in October 2014 close to his village Podapadar. The Maoists, who had joined palms with Linga, had accused him of weakening the tribal agitation by becoming a member of palms with the BJD.

A bonded labourer in Narayanpatna, Linga shot to prominence in 2006 when he shaped the Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangh that captured some 50 acres of non-tribal land within the Podapadar gram panchayat of Narayanpatna block of Koraput district. He was swiftly arrested and charged with a number of instances, together with one in all being a Maoist.

He was acquitted of all prices in 2008. In 2008, he, together with some CMAS members, shaped one other outfit known as Ghenua Bahini whose members wore crimson shirts and have been armed with conventional tribal weapons like bows and arrows. His group forcibly encroached lands of non-tribals, snatched their valuables and left a lot of them homeless.

In 2009, he grew to become probably the most needed man for the Odisha police when he launched an armed assault on Narayanpatna police station resulting in police firing that resulted in demise of two tribals and harm to the inspector of the police station.

With the assistance of Maoists, he had nearly turn out to be profitable in turning Narayanpatna right into a Maoist fortress until Odisha police struck again and took management of the world after three years.

Of the 45 instances pending in opposition to him, Linga had been acquitted in 44 instances. The trial within the 2009 Narayanpatna police station assault continues to be happening.

Linga’s lawyer Prashant Jena stated he had first moved for bail petition earlier than the Orissa HC in 2018 after which moved the SC in 2019 after his bail petition was rejected.

The apex court docket in March this yr had requested the trial court docket in Koraput to complete trial within the Narayanpatna case inside six weeks or give him bail if the identical couldn’t be accomplished in time.

When the trial couldn’t be completed inside six weeks, Linga moved the trial court docket in Koraput searching for bail in April. However, the identical was rejected amid Covid-19 lockdown.

The case lastly went as much as SC which on October 28 ordered Orissa High Court to conduct the bail listening to because it involved the freedom of an individual.