Cuttack, March 17: The Orissa government has said a compensation claim by the widows of two convicts, who were stoned to death by another convict inside the special sub jail in Boudh, has “no merit”. The incident took place on the night of September 21, 2010.

The two widows — Sabitri Kanhar (70) and Kaikeyee Kanhar (40) — had filed a petition in Orissa High Court seeking Rs 25 lakh as compensation. The compensation claim was made on the ground that the duo was murdered while they were undergoing a sentence and the incident occurred because of negligence on the part of jail authorities. Human rights activist advocate Prabir Das had moved the petition on behalf of the two widows.

Countering it, the state government has taken the stand that the claim has no merit because the killing was a fallout of “previous enmity” and “revengeful mood” of another convict. But the government in its counter affidavit conceded that a sharp-edged stone could have been used for the fatal attack because the guards had failed to detect it when it was carried into the ward.

Though the case was listed before the two-judge bench of Chief Justice V. Gopal Gowda and Justice B.N. Mohapatra for today, it did not come up for hearing.

Prafulla Chandra Pradhan, assistant inspector- general of prisons, who filed the counter affidavit on behalf of the state government, said an inquiry conducted by the deputy inspector-general of prisons (Berhampur) had mentioned that there was enmity between Antaryami Rana and the two slain convicts Duryodhan Kanhar (74) and Sudarsan Kanhar (46) over the jail panchayat elections. Rana was seeking a chance to take revenge on the duo.

Sudarsan and his son Duryodhan of Doradamunda village under Harabhanga police limits of Boudh district were undergoing life imprisonment in connection with the murder of Kishore Chandra Behera. Behera was killed in September 1999.

Another son of Sudarsan, Bhimasen, who was also convicted in the same murder case, is undergoing life sentence at the Biju Patnaik Open Air Ashram at Jamujhari.

“On the fateful night, convict Antaryami Rana brutally murdered both of them with a sharp-edged stone, which he had collected earlier and therefore, no nexus can be attributed to the murder of the two convicts, and the state is no way responsible for the murder committed by him, which is purely out of grudge, malice and previous enmity between them and in this state of affairs, it is difficult to bring the state and its functionaries into the picture,” Pradhan said in the affidavit citing the report.

Antaryami Rana collected a sharp-edged stone on September 20, 2010, before lock up hours from the enclosure of ward No. 4 where two cells were being constructed by Orissa Police Housing Corporation and had kept it concealed inside a blanket.

“This having escaped detection by the guards, Rana got a scope on September 21 night to attack Duryodhan Kanhar and Sudarsan Kanhar when they were asleep,” the affidavit conceded. They were shifted to the Boudh district headquarter hospital. One was brought dead, while the other died after a few hours.