Cuttack, June 28: The Court of District and Sessions Judge has deferred fixing of the trial date of gangster duo, the Dhal Samant siblings, to July 11.

Police had arrested Sushant, 46, and Sushil Dhal Samant, 43, last year with charges of kidnapping and murder of their two associates - Manoj Mallick and Om Prakash Swain.

Orissa High Court had directed the trial court to conduct joint trial in the two cases.

The gangster siblings committed the crime on January 29 last year. Charge sheets had been submitted against both of them about a year ago.

"The District and Sessions Judge, Cuttack, yesterday had to defer fixing of the date for starting the trial as charges had not been framed in the Om Prakash Swain kidnap-and-murder case," Dhal Samant brothers' counsel Prasanna Mohanty said today.

"Last week, the high court ordered for combined trial on our petition after we had pleaded for it on the ground that accused, place, time of occurrence and disposal of bodies were the same," Mohanty said.

Manoj and Om had allegedly been abducted from their houses and beaten to death at a farmhouse near Athagarh in 2013. Their bodies were later disposed of at a desolate place in Jharkhand.

"The trial court has posted framing of charges to July 11 and fixing of date for the start of joint trial after that," Mohanty said.

The police filed charge sheets against the gangster brothers and 12 others for the alleged murder of Manoj and Om in the Court of Sub-divisional Judicial Magistrate, Cuttack, on May 26 and June 13, respectively, last year.