Odisha builder arrested for attack on Railway official

Reported by Santosh Jagdev
Bhubaneswar, May 31:

Less than 24 hours after a senior Railway official was shot at while going to his home in Shree Vihar area here, Commissionerate Police today arrested Subash Agarwal, managing director of ARSS Infrastructure Ltd, a construction company that is executing a host of projects in Odisha, for the attack.

The arrest of Agarwal was confirmed by Bhubaneswar Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Satyabrata Bhoi. He was forwarded to the court this afternoon.

Commissionerate Police sources said a case has been registered against Agarwal under section 120 B, 341, 307, 506, 34 of IPC read with Sec 25/27 of Arms Act will be interrogated about the people involved in the case.

Chandrasekharpur police sources said Agarwal ordered the attack on joint general manager (JGM) of Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), Ajay Kumar, who had imposed heavy fines on ARSS for irregularities in the Sukinda-Angul Railway project work, which had been sublet to it by the Ghaziabad based Woodhill-Hillway.

Agarwal, they said, had threatened Kumar of dire consequences in February this year after the latter imposed a fine of Rs 25 lakh on the company for the irregularities committed by it.

Kumar imposed another fine – this time amounting to Rs 3.3 lakh, on May 21 after which Agarwal got wild and decided to finish Kumar with the help of hired criminals. In a desperate bid to stop Kumar in his tracks, Agarwal had ordered the attack after he ignored his threat and continued with the probe, police sources told OST.

Kumar was fired at by three bike-born unidentified assailants while he was going to his home in Shree Vihar at about 2 pm yesterday. He, however, escaped unhurt as the bullets fired missed him and hit his car instead.

“Sir was going to his residence in Shree Vihar at 2 pm when three men stopped his car (OD-02-T-9163), and opened fire at him. But fortunately, he escaped unhurt,” Tribikram Paikaray, driver of Kumar, had told media persons yesterday.

He had also informed that the goons had asked Kumar to go back to his native place in Bihar.

Kumar, who stays at 6th Avenue in Shree Vihar in Chandrasekharpur, however, had not commented on the incident.