Bhubaneswar, May 24 -- A sessions court on Saturday sentenced 19 people, including a former Biju Janata Dal (BJD) functionary, to life imprisonment in connection with a 2016 triple murder and arson case in Odisha's Nabarangpur district. The case stems from the murder of Dalit farmer and folk theatre artist Balaram Harijan on July 16, 2016, near his home in Nabarangpur following a dispute over a nine-acre patch of forest land. The clash was the culmination of escalating tensions in the area after tribal residents planted acacia and eucalyptus saplings on the land, which Balaram allegedly uprooted. According to the prosecution, on the morning of July 16, 2016, a group of tribal residents sent two locals, Phagunu Bhatra and Gurubaru Bhatra, to...