The police on Friday arrested four accused persons from Bangalore involved in the attack on law, Culture and Tourism Minister Maheswar Mohanty. They were brought to Puri by a special police team.
The accused were first taken to Konark. They were being interrogated at the Konark police station in presence of a top brass of the State police. The accused have revealed the names of the person who had given them “supari” to kill the Minister and involvement of a local BJD leader who handled the operation, sources in the police said.
DGP Prakash Mishra told mediapersons in Bhubaneswar that after committing the crime, the accused had first fled to Andhra Pradesh and then to Karnataka to evade arrest. Finally, they were nabbed with inter-State police cooperation. The police recovered two 9mm and 7mm guns, motor cycles and mobile phones used in the crime.
According to Puri SP Anup Kumar Sahu, after a week-long hectic effort, the special team of police nabbed all the five accused including an accused arrested from Puri involved in the crime. He, however, refused to reveal the names.
According to sources, the attack on the Minister has links with murder of Bhagaban Mahapatra alias Guna Simhari in August 2012. Mahapatra was a powerful BJD councillor who was elected unopposed.
His assailants were found to be all BJD workers close to Minister Mohanty. Recently, the main accused had been bailed out by the Supreme Court. He happens to be closely associated with Mohanty. It is suspected that the Minister was targeted as a tit-for-tat exercise.