Nearly 28 years after his wife’s death, a special court in Bhubaneswar on Saturday convicted former Odisha MLA Ramamurthy Gomango for murder and destruction of evidence. The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on Tuesday. The half-burnt body of Gamango’s wife, Sashirekha, was recovered from the bathroom of the former legislator’s quarters in the MLA colony in Bhubaneswar on August 29, 1995. Initially, an unnatural death case was registered by the Kharvel Nagar police station in the city, but it was later converted into a murder case. Gomango was made an accused under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code. He was also arrested in the case, but was released on bail in just two months. Rashmi Ranjan Brahma, who was the special public prosecutor in the case, said that during the course of the trial, the prosecution examined 11 witnesses and 15 documents. “The prosecution was able to prove that the accused committed the murder of his wife and tried to make it seem like suicide. The former MLA has been sent to jail following his conviction. The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on June 27,” Brahma told The Indian Express. Gomango, a tribal leader, represented the Gunupur constituency in the Odisha Assembly, first from 1990 to 1995 as a Janata Dal MLA, and then from 2000 to 2004 as a BJP MLA. He lost the 2004 Assembly election to Hemabati Gamang, who fought on a Congress ticket. Though Gamango had left the BJP in 2009 after the ruling BJD snapped ties with the saffron party, he rejoined the BJP in 2014 and unsuccessfully contested the Assembly polls that year.
