Puri: Police Sunday claimed to have arrested two more persons in connection with the triple murder at Pattanaikia Square on Bhubaneswar-Puri National Highway July 14.
The arrested have been identified as Mitu Behera, 26, and Prahalad Behera, 25, of Sadanandpur under Satyabadi police limits. “The two accused were arrested from a forest near Sadanandpur in the wee hours of Sunday. The duo has confessed to the crime,” said Puri district Superintendent of Police (SP) Umashankar Dash at a press conference here.
Police have seized a few swords and iron rods used in the crime from the forests, Dash added. “The duo would be produced in a local court Monday. We will soon arrest the remaining accused,” said the SP.
Police had earlier arrested six persons in connection with incident.
Police, meanwhile, claimed that they got vital clues on the accused by examining CCTV footage collected from Pattanaikia Square. “From the CCTV footage we came to know that four persons had attacked Purna Behera and two of his relatives with sharp weapons at Pattanaikia Square July 14,” said the SP.
According to police, two groups of villagers of Sadanandpur were in a collision course over land disputes for last several years. The two groups had clashed with each other at Satashankha ground April 30, this year. “Satyabadi police had registered two separate cases in connection with the incident and arrested a few persons from both sides. Enraged over the incident, members of one group had hatched a plot to eliminate a few from their rival group,” added the SP.
According to the SP, the accused had met in a forest near Sadanandpur July 13 to fine tune their blueprint to eliminate Purna Behera and his siblings.
It is worth mentioning here that some miscreants had hacked Purna Behera, his brother Krushna Behera and one of their cousins Panchau Behera at Pattanaikia Square.
Satyabadi police had registered a case in this regard after receiving a complaint from the victims’ family.
The Puri district police had formed two special teams to arrest the accused. Police had recorded the statements of eye witnesses and examined the CCTV footage. A scientific team had also visited the crime spot.