Odisha councillor murder: 2 prime accused including BJP leader held from U’khand

Bhubaneswar: The Ganjam police have arrested two prime accused in the sensational murder of Chhatrapur councillor Laxmidutta Pradhan from Uttarakhand.

The arrested are identified as BJP Ganjam district unit secretary Krushnachandra Nayak and Duryodhan Reddy.

With that, the number of arrests in the case mounted to 17 as fifteen others were earlier arrested in connection with the murder.

Ganjam SP Ashish Kumar Singh in a press meet last month had said that Nayak was involved in the incident as the prime conspirator.

Political blame game had also erupted after Nayak’s name emerged in the murder case. The BJD had alleged BJP’s involvement in the incident saying that Nayak was inducted into BJP at Mo Booth Sabuthu Majboot programme of the party and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and BJP national president Amit Shah were present at the event.

“Didn’t they know about his antecedents before including him in the party?,” BJD spokesperson Prashanta Nanda had asked citing a photograph of the programme in which Nayak, Dharmendra Pradhan and Amit Shah were seen on the same stage.

Refuting the allegation, BJP had said the incident was a fallout of rivalry between MLA Priyanshu Pradhan and Nayak.

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.