Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Dec 26:

Odisha Stevedores Limited (OSL) Managing Director Mahimananda Mishra aka Mahima Mishra and the firm’s Executive Director Basant Kumar Bal have arrived in Kolkata this evening, informed Director General of Police (DGP) K B Singh.

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Singh told the media that the duo will be brought to Bhubaneswar later in the evening.

The six-member team of the Jagatsinghpur district police that had gone to Bangkok yesterday to fetch the duo arrived in Kolkata this evening. The team brought the duo to Kolkata after they were handed over by Thai authorities on completion of deportation formalities.

Mahima and Basanta were detained at the Immigration Centre in Bangkok after they were arrested by Thai immigration police from a 5 star hotel in the Pratunam area.

The DGP had yesterday claimed at a press meet that Odisha police had taken the help of 12 agencies to nab Mahima.

Singh had said that Mishra had stayed mostly in luxurious hotels at various places in his fugitive period. These places include New Delhi, Gurugram, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Bhimdutta (Indo-Nepal border), Kathmandu and Bangkok.

Mishra had managed to escape to Nepal through the open border where no passport and visa is needed and had then managed to escape to Bangkok in Thailand through tourist visa where he was finally detained as Odisha police were tracking there through appropriate agencies, the DGP had said.

It may be mentioned here that the Kujang JMFC court on Friday had issued non-bailable warrants (NBWs) against Odisha Stevedores Limited (OSL) chief Mahimananda Mishra and firm’s Executive Director Basant Bal in connection with the murder of Seaways Shipping and Logistics Private Limited (SSPL) General Manager Mahendra Swain.

Further, a lookout circular was earlier issued against Mishra by the police in connection with the murder of Swain. The OSL chief had moved the Odisha High Court seeking anticipatory bail and challenging the lookout circular. However, the court denied interim protection to him.

Similarly, police had conducted raid on the house of Bal on November 10 and froze his personal account.

It may be recalled here that on October 26 shots were fired at Swain near Ambedkar Bhawan at Madhuban Colony in Paradip. Two miscreants had hurled crude hand bombs at the SUV in which Swain was travelling. While Swain was fleeing to save his life after alighting from the vehicle, miscreants fired two rounds at him leading to his death.

Seven persons have been arrested by the police in connection with Swain’s murder so far. They are Rakesh Choubey, Riyasat Hussain alias Riyaz, Mohammad Shamim, Manoj Gochhayat, Shiba, Arindam alias Bapi Sarkhel and Sushant Sethy.

According to the police, Rakesh Choubey had received Rs 12 lakh cash in advance from OSL in September 2016 to execute Swain. Choubey through his associates got Swain killed on October 26 this year.