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Former Odisha MLA sentenced to life for killing live-in partner and her daughter
The case had caused a flutter in Odisha’s political circles, with chief minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik expelling the three-time MLA and heavyweight of western Odisha politics, Anup Sai, from the party.
RAIPUR/BHUBANESWAR: A sessions court in Chhatisgarh’s Raigarh district on Saturday sentenced former Odisha MLA and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader, Anup Sai, to life imprisonment on charges of murdering his live-in partner and her daughter in 2016.
The case had caused a flutter in the state’s political circles, with chief minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik expelling the heavyweight of western Odisha politics from the party. Sai, who had won the Brajrajnagar seat thrice on a Congress ticket between 2000 and 2009, before switching loyalty to the BJD in 2014, was also removed as chairperson of the Odisha State Warehousing Corporation.
The double murder was first reported on May 7, 2016, when Raigarh police recovered the mutilated bodies of Kalpana Das (32) and her daughter Bubli Das (14) from an area close to the Jharsuguda border in Chhattisgarh.
Sai and his driver Bardhan Toppo were arrested in connection with the case in February 2020 and charged under sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of the evidence) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
Sai was in a live-in relationship with Kalpana Das, who had separated from her husband in 2005. Sai had first met her during a visit to Raigarh. In 2011, Kalpana along with her daughter from her first marriage, Bubli , shifted to a flat bought by Sai in Sundarpada area of Bhubaneswar. Sai used to regularly visit Kalpana and her daughter and also used to go on vacation with them.
Police in their chargesheet said while staying together for years, Kalpana kept pressuring Sai to marry her but he kept dodging her request saying he was already married and had children. When Kalpana pressurised Sai for a share in his properties, the former MLA reportedly decided to bump her off.
On the pretext of marrying Kalpana at a temple in Raigarh, Sai sent both the mother and daughter to Jharsuguda on May 5, 2016 in a bus and kept them in a hotel. He followed them in his own car along with his driver Barman Toppo. From Jharsuguda, the four left for Raigarh in the same vehicle. Around 9pm on the same day, he along with his driver and two others in a Bolero reached Raigarh where he promised to marry Kalpana in a temple. However, at Raigarh, he told them that there are no good hotels around and they should stay in a relative’s house at Hamirpur.
On the way, Kalpana was thrashed with a blunt object near Maa Shakambari plant. Her daughter was killed in a similar way as Sai was scared of her revealing the truth. After killing the two, Sai and his driver Toppo mauled the bodies under two SUVs several times to make the deaths look like road accidents.
The bodies of the mother and daughter were found by local farmers near Maa Shakambari steel plant on the morning of May 7, 2016, the complaint said.
After the murder, Sai and his driver fled via Hamirpur to Odisha, the Raigarh SP said. Post-mortem report of the deceased revealed that they were first hit with a blunt object before being run over by a vehicle.
Though a case was registered at Chakradhar Nagar police station under Section 302 of IPC on May 7, 2016, it took police almost a year to ascertain their identity. An inter-state level advertisement over the identities of the deceased was issued after which the identity of the woman and the child was confirmed by the ex-husband of the woman, Sunil Srivastava.
The call details took police to various locations. During investigation, 700 people from Odisha, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were interrogated. When the police probed deeply into the matter, they found that Kalpana was the live-in partner of Sai. In 2017, when mobile phone calls of Kalpana were traced, the needle of suspicion turned towards Sai. The BJD leader initially did not cooperate with the probe and never turned up for questioning using his political clout.
It was not until February 2020 when the Raigarh police finally arrested Sai and his driver Toppo. Soon after his arrest, Sai was expelled from the party.
The trial in the case began in November 2020.
On Saturday, Kamlesh Jagdalla, fifth additional district and sessions judge of Raigarh, sentenced Sai to life imprisonment on charges of murder and imposed a fine of ₹5,000 on him. The 59-year-old was also sentenced to seven years in prison, which would run concurrent to his life sentence, for destruction of evidence.
Toppo, accused of running the SUV over the bodies, has been acquitted by the court due to lack of evidence.
