The bid to hunt a wild boar went wrong when a hunter was shot dead by one of his aides accidentally in the Andirakanch police station area under Kashipur block in Rayagada district on Tuesday.
The deceased was identified as Khageswar Jhodia, a resident of Kaliajodi village in the district.Police recovered charred body of the deceased and arrested as many as 18 persons involved in alleged murder case, police said on Thursday.
According to reports, around 20 youths of Kanchaguma and Kaliajodi villages under the Andirakanch PS had conducted an operation on September 22 to kill a wild boar that was destroying crops for the past few days in the area. Khageswar was also part of the team in search of wild boar. Source said that during search of wild boar, a bullet accidentally fired from one of his associate’s gun directly hit his head and he died on the spot. Fearing arrest, his associates burnt the body.
On Wednesday, Khageswar father Shukr filed a missing complaint. On receiving information, the police immediately started a probe and recovered the half-burnt body from the burial ground near Kaliajodi village. A country-made SBBL gun was also seized. Later, the body was sent to the Kashipur CHC for postmortem. The police also collected evidence like blood stained earth and ashes from the spot.