Bhubaneswar, May 9: A fast-track court today awarded life term to the killer of senior surgeon, Brahmananda Panda. The murder of Panda, who ran a clinic, had sent shockwaves across the capital two years ago.

Fast-track court judge Vivekanand Dash held accused Harendra Naik alias Hari, 25, guilty of murdering the 60-year-old doctor at his residence-cum-nursing home in Kharavela Nagar on the night of July 27, 2010, and sentenced him to life. Hari was a former employee of the nursing home.

The court has also sentenced him to three years of rigorous imprisonment under provision of the Arms Act.

“Though there were no eyewitnesses in this case, the court was convinced with the evidences we produced. We had produced the blood-stained clothes of the accused along with the weapon of offence and the finger-print samples collected from the spot which matched with that of Hari,” said government advocate Bidhubhushan Mohanty.

The hearing of the case continued for one-and-half years. Of the 46 witnesses, the prosecution examined 25. Mohanty said the statement of all these witnesses were vital to the conviction.

Talking about the motive of the murder, the public prosecutor said the accused was romantically involved with Gita Jena, who worked as a cook in Panda’s nursing home.

“After Panda came to know about their relationship and also caught them in a compromising position, he sacked Hari from his job a month before the murder. The accused later took up a job in another nursing home, but remained intent on taking revenge. Hari killed him with a katuri (dagger) on July 27,” said the government advocate.

Panda’s body was recovered from his residence on July 28. The city police arrested Hari on July 31. Later, he confessed to committing the crime before the police. The weapon used in the crime was recovered from a railway track.

The police arrested him after interrogating the cook who had also left the nursing home before Panda’s murder. The cook gave leads to the accused person’s whereabouts.

The police said that the accused had planned the crime in advance. As he was aware of the working hours of the nursing home and its staff, he carried out the crime smoothly and escaped easily.

“However, we cracked the case within a week and submitted a chargesheet in November 2010 within four months of the case in the court. We carried out the investigation properly and had collected all the evidence which paid the result today,” said a police officer, who investigated the case.

However, Hari’s advocate S.P. Rout said that he was not happy with the verdict.

“The motive of the murder has not been established. Though they said Hari had a relationship with the cook, they did not produce the woman in the court or examined her. My client will go to a higher court against this verdict,” said Rout.

The employees of Panda’s nursing home expressed satisfaction over the verdict. Bijay Kumar Sahu, the security in charge of the nursing home, said when the incident occurred in 2010, there were no proper security arrangements there.

“Our team had to take charge on July 28 that year. It’s good to see that justice has been done,” said Sahu.