Overview
- The trial court on Monday convicted 29-year-old Rakesh Kumar Swain of murdering 21-year-old ex-student Jharaphula Nayak and sentenced him to life imprisonment plus a Rs 1 lakh fine.
- The court found an aide, Amaresh Rout, guilty of destroying evidence and gave him five years in prison with a monetary penalty, while acquitting co-accused Shakti Sekhar Swain for lack of proof.
- Prosecutors say police pieced together events from CCTV footage, mobile-data traces and forensic and medical reports to show Nayak was killed in a Bhubaneswar hotel on January 26, 2021 and her body later dumped near Mulapala chhak.
- Judges relied on testimony from 22 prosecution witnesses to reach the verdict and directed the Jajpur district legal cell to pay Rs 5 lakh to the victim’s parents as statutory compensation.
- The case, which drew wide attention in Odisha during the COVID period, highlights how digital evidence and witness testimony can resolve delayed investigations and may shape how future violence-against-women cases are prosecuted.