BHUBANESWAR: A decade-old grudge over the 2012 killing of Guna Singhari, a servitor of the Puri Jagannath temple and a former BJD councillor, triggered the revenge murder of servitor Krushna Chandra Pratihari in the pilgrim town on March 16, said police after arresting six persons in this connection on Monday.
Guna Singhari’s brother, Kalia Singhari alias Taluchha Nityananda Mohapatra (58), and nephew, Dolagobinda Singhari alias Taluchha Asish Mohapatra (26), are among the six arrested. The other four have been identified by the police as Baba Mahapatra (37), Kalu alias Satyanarayan Panigrahi (32), Rashmiranjan Patra (33) and Sandip Jena (34). All of them belong to Puri.
Pratihari, who was the prime accused in the 2012 Singhari murder case before being acquitted of all charges in January this year, was shot dead at Barabati Jagaghara (a community centre). Pratihari was the secretary of the temple’s Suar Mahasuar Nijog, a prominent association of servitors.
“As of now, we suspect that the motive of the murder was revenge. We are, however, exploring other possible angles, including land dispute. Kalia and his son Dolagobinda were the prime conspirators. They had engaged Kalu to hatch the plan. The murder contract was finalised for Rs 30 lakh. Kalu was paid Rs 2 lakh in advance,” Puri SP Kanwar Vishal Singh said.
The police said four persons, including Baba, were present on the spot during the firing on Pratihari. The other three persons — Tutu Mahapatra, Kunmun Suar and Hari Pandaare — are on the run. The police said Hari fired on Pratihari’s head from a close range, killing him on the spot. Rashmiranjan supplied the firearms to the killers, while Sandip helped the accused escape and take shelter in different places.
“We are conducting raids at multiple locations in and outside Odisha to arrest the absconding three accused. The case was solved within a week. We will take some of the accused on remand for custodial interrogation,” the Puri SP said.
Kalu, a close associate of Guna Singhari, was arrested earlier for allegedly opening fire at former Puri MLA Maheswar Mohanty in February 2014. Kalu and some others had allegedly attempted to kill Mohanty on the suspicions that he (Mohanty) engineered the killing of Singhari.
