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

Berhampur: As many as eight persons have been arrested in connection with the murder of Laxmidutta Pradhan, councillor from ward no.6 of Chhatrapur Notified Area Council (NAC) in Odisha’s Ganjam district and a BJD youth leader.

The arrested have been identified as Sonu alias Pravat Kumar Nayak, Surjya Kumar Nayak, Prem Kumar Nayak, N. Iswar Reddy, Kuna Nayak, Jiten Kumar Nayak, Susila Nayak and Prasant Swain.

While Prasant hails from Mardakote under Kodala police limits, rest are from Chhatrapur.

Here are the kind of involvement of the accused in the sensational murder according to police:

Sonu alias Pravat Kumar Nayak (24) — He played an active role in assaulting the councillor by a wooden lathi.

Surjya Kumar Nayak (30) — He assaulted the deceased with a pipe.

Prem (22), Iswar (19), Kuna (20), Jiten (20) — The four provided support to the assailants in order to commit the murder.

Susila Nayak (28) — He assisted the accused persons namely Santosh Sethy, Banaja Nahak, Kali alias Prasant Behera, Chiku alias Ayusman Mahapatra and Bhaskar Behera to escape in his Hyundai i-10 car from Chhatrapur to Bhubaneswar through Mardakote, Kodala soon after the incident and sent the accused persons away.

Prasant Swain (24) — He drove the car in which the above five persons escaped from Chhatrapur to Bhubaneswar.

Police have seized one sword stained with blood used in the crime, one broken wooden baton, one plastic pipe, two bikes, one scooter and a car from their possession.

Efforts are on to arrest the other accused, police said.

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.