Chhattisgarh Court awards life term to ex- Odisha MLA in double murder case

A court in Chhattisgarh awarded life term to former Odisha MLA Anup Sai for murdering a woman and her 14-year-old daughter in 2016.  Kamlesh Jagdalla, fifth additional district and sessions judge Raigarh District and Sessions Judge Court in Chhattisgarh on Saturday convicted former Brajrajnagar MLA Anup Sai for murdering Kalpana Das and daughter Bubli while acquitting Bardhan Toppo, driver of Sai in the case. After recording statements of 50 witnesses, the court gave an order for life imprisonment of Sai in the double murder case and another seven years jail term for destroying evidence. He was also fined Rs 5,000. 

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 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.

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.