Bhubaneswar, Dec 11: The Odisha government has set up a Special Court to expedite the trial of Maoist leader Dunna Kesava Rao, alias Azad (52), who has been in judicial custody since 2011, according to a notification issued by the Home Department.
The notification states that, “In compliance with the order of the Supreme Court, the State Government, in consultation with the High Court of Orissa, hereby establishes a Court of the Additional District and Sessions Judge at Paralakhemundi, in addition to the existing number of such courts in the judgeship of Gajapati, with effect from the date the court becomes functional. The court will have jurisdiction across the entire State of Odisha and will sit at Paralakhemundi for the speedy trial of cases pending against D. Kesava Rao.”
For the time being, the Special Court will hear all cases except those registered under the POCSO Act, 2012, the notification added.
This appears to be the first time in Odisha that a separate court has been created exclusively to handle the pending cases of a single undertrial prisoner.
Azad currently faces at least 37 criminal cases in Odisha and in his home state of Andhra Pradesh. He was the prime accused in the murder of VHP leader Swami Laxamananda Saraswati—an incident that triggered widespread communal violence in Kandhamal in 2008.
He is also an accused in the 2008 attack on the Nayagarh police armoury, in which 14 people, including 13 police personnel, were killed, as well as the 2006 attack on the R Udaygiri jail. Additionally, a murder case against him is pending at the Tumudibandha police station in Kandhamal district.
Azad has already been acquitted in at least ten cases.
Seeking a faster trial process, he has undertaken multiple hunger strikes while in jail. In March this year, the Supreme Court directed the governments of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh to consider setting up special courts to ensure quicker disposal of the cases against him.
A former member of the Maoist party’s Orissa State Organising Committee (ORSOC), Azad surrendered before the Andhra Pradesh police on May 18, 2011, and was handed over to the Odisha police on June 1, 2011.
