A fast track court here on Monday deferred judgment in the Dr Brahmananda Panda murder case till May 9. “The court postponed pronouncing its verdict as lawyers struck work expressing solidarity with their counterparts in Sambalpur,” defence counsel Sirsendu Prasad Rout said.
The 60-year-old doctor was hacked to death at his nursing home-cum-residence in Kharavel Nagar on July 27, 2010. The court has examined 25 witnesses during the trial. Dr Panda’s ex-sweeper Hari alias Harendra Naik is the accused. According to the prosecution, Naik had harboured a grudge against Dr Panda after the latter sacked him from service for allegedly entering into a relationship with a woman employee.
On the fateful night, the accused reportedly drunk was waiting inside Panda’s house. When Panda returned home, Hari allegedly pounced upon him and hacked him five to six times. Dr Panda died immediately. Dr Panda had been practising in the Capital for the last three decades. He had started a small clinic at Kalpana Square in the early 80s and then shifted to his own four-storey building in 1992.
