STATE OF ORISSA Vs. MAHIMANANDA MISHRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted in both the special leave petitions.

(2.) The two instant appeals have been preferred by the State of Orissa and the defacto informant in FIR No. 180/2016, registered at Paradeep Police Station in Orissa State against the order dated 16.05.2017 of the High Court of Orissa at Cuttack, by which an application for bail filed by the respondent herein in connection with the aforementioned first information has been allowed.

(3.) The case of the prosecution in brief, as seen from the first information report and the other connected material, is that on 26.10.2016 at about 09:00 a.m. while the deceased Mahendra Swain was heading to his office in his vehicle accompanied by the driver and his security guard, two unknown assailants hurled bombs on the vehicle, and when the inmates of the vehicle tried to escape, they opened indiscriminate firing on the deceased, leading to his death. According to the first information, the murder was committed at the behest of certain people including the respondent herein namely Mahimananda Mishra. The incident was mainly on account of business rivalry between the company of the deceased and the company of the respondent. The deceased was the Branch Manager of Seaways Shipping and Logistics Limited, Paradeep Branch. The respondent-accused is having a company, by name, Orissa Stevedores Limited. It has been alleged that the respondent had given death threats to the deceased directly and through the brother of the deceased.