Chhatrapur Councillor murder case: 5 more held, BJP leader involved

Berhampur: Odisha police have arrested five more persons in connection with the the murder of Laxmidutta Pradhan, councillor from ward no.6 of Chhatrapur Notified Area Council (NAC) in Ganjam district and a BJD youth leader, informed Ganjam SP Ashish Kumar Singh, adding that BJP district secretary Krushnachandra Nayak was also involved in the incident as prime conspirator and is currently absconding.

The arrested have been identified as Santosh Sethi (prime accused), Banoj Nayak (27), Kali alias Prasanta Kumar Behera (29), Sanjay Gouda (38) and Chiku alias Ayusman Mohapatra (23).

The SP said Santosh played a major role in organising the group, leading them to the house of the councillor and assaulting him.

While Banoj and Prasanta attacked Laxmidutta with sword, Sanjay and Ayusman provided support and also assaulted the councillor, the SP said, adding that all the five were captured on the CCTV footage.

Efforts are on to nab others involved in the murder and seize the sword used by them to commit the crime, the police official said.

Worth mentioning, eight persons were earlier arrested in connection with the murder.

Also read: Chhatrapur Councillor murder: Which accused did what on the fateful day.

Notably, the BJD councillor was hacked to death by a group of armed miscreants on September 16 while he was sitting in front of his house in Suryanagar with some students.