Tribal leader gets 2-year sentence

In the first conviction 10 months after riots rocked Kandhamal district, a tribal leader has been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment by a local court here for setting ablaze the house of a man belonging to a minority community.

Chakradhar Mallick of Dampidhia village had set the house of Loknath Digal of the village on fire during the communal riots that broke out in the aftermath of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Laxmananda Saraswati’s killing on August 23, 2008.

Fast-track court-II judge Chittaranjan Dash, the additional sessions judge, imposed a fine of Rs1,000 on Mallick while delivering the judgement on Tuesday. The court had earlier acquitted three persons.

Mallick, a tribal leader, was accused of instigating people in the village to set ablaze houses of the minority community. The district witnessed large-scale violence for two months. The riots claimed at least 43 lives and at least 4,600 houses, over 150 churches and prayer houses were set on fire.

Seven hundred cases were filed in police stations, while police arrested about 1,000 people for the riots.