Unearthing a cold blooded murder mystery of realtor Ramesh Behera that took place on Saturday last, the Industrial police here have arrested seven people, including the main accused.
The accused were forwarded to court after being booked under Sections 302/216/120(b) and 34 of IPC.
Superintendent of Police Sudhanshu Sekhar Mishra said that the reason behind the murder was professional rivalry.
And the main accused, Chittaranjan Panigrahi (47) of Ganeswarpur village had hired goons against cash allurement for eliminating Ramesh Behera.
The enmity between Panigrahi and Behera was for purchase of a piece of land of about 2.27 acres in Srikrishnapur village from Manoranjan Sen and others.
According to SP Mishra, Panigrahi hired goons against a deal of Rs 50 lakh with Ranjan Sahu (28) of Achuyatpur village and Sambhunath Bisoi (25) of Srikrishnapur.
While Rs 1.5 lakh was paid in advance after commission of the murder, they were paid Rs 70,000 cash. Rs 42,000 cash was recovered from them after their arrest. Ranjan and Sambhunath further engaged other accused persons.
The other accused persons nabbed by police were identified as Kamal Behera (21) of Srikrishnapur, Gopinath Pakal (27) of Astapur , Manas Pradhan (22) of Chengua village, Mangalpur, Badasahi of Mayurbhanj and Bhanj Kumar Behera of Bhogadia village , Berhampur (Nilgiri), Baleswar.
On that fateful day, after a conspiracy was hatched, Kamal had called Behera to the disputed site, Achuyatapur for having a discussion about the land.
When he arrived, others attacked him with sharp edged weapons killing him on the spot. Besides the weapons, police seized two SUVs, two bikes and one auto rickshaw.
“The investigation is on and more people will be arrested who are absconding in the case,” said Industrial police station IIC Minati Biswal.