Of late, the Kendrapada police are on an encounter spree like their Ganjam counterparts to infuse fear of the bullet among the criminals, who spread a reign of terror in the district and make life miserable for the residents.
In an example, police on Wednesday nabbed dreaded criminal and sharpshooter Bijay Nayak after a gunfight in the Kajala area of the district. This was the fourth such encounter by police in last two months in the district.
Acting on a tipoff about Bijay’s presence in his ancestral house in the Bilikana area late Tuesday night, a team of the Sadar police and a special squad intercepted the criminal on National Highway-16.
After coming face to face with the cops, Bijay opened fire at them in a bid to escape. However, the police retaliated and managed to nab Bijay after shooting him at his left leg.
Bijay sustained two bullet injuries on his leg and was initially admitted to the District Headquarter Hospital and later shifted to the SCB Medical College Hospital in Cuttack.
Police seized a CBZ motorcycle, a mouser, a fake voter ID and Aadhaar proof from Bijay’s possession.
Police sources said Bijay is one of the accused in the sensational Sheikh Suleman murder case in 2009 and is also an associate of gangster Tito. After Suleman was murdered, he had gone underground.
He is wanted in over 100 cases, including that of murder, robbery, bank dacoity, loot, kidnapping and smuggling of arms in several areas of Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Bhubaneswar, Puri and Kolkata.