post news network
Bhubaneswar, Dec 25: After hoodwinking Orissa Police and managing to flee the country, business man Mahimananda Mishra and his aide were detained by immigration officials with the help of Interpol in Thailand.
Orissa DGP Kunwar Brajesh Singh told the reporters Sunday that Mishra, who was wanted in connection with the murder of Seaways Shipping and Logistics Limited general manager Mahendra Swain, was detained by immigration officials from a hotel in Bangkok.
Singh also said Mishra’s associate Basant Kumar Bal was detained along with him. Two miscreants had hurled crude bombs at the SUV in which Swain was travelling near Madhuban Colony in Paradip October 26. While Swain tried to escape from the vehicle, miscreants fired at him leading to his death.
“A four-member team Sunday left Orissa for Thailand to bring Mishra and Bal back here. The team will complete the legal formalities Monday and bring back the duo in a day or two. We traced the whereabouts of the duo after we arrested Mishra’s confidante Sushant Sethy. We learnt that Mishra fled Orissa and stayed at various five star hotels in New Delhi, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Amritsar, and Indo-Nepal border on his way to Bangkok. He made all payments by using the credit cards of Sethy. He then went to Nepal by road from where he fled to Thailand by boarding a Thai Airways plane.”
“Mishra, who is the owner and managing director of Orissa Stevedores Limited (OSL), was enjoying monopoly over the stevedoring business of Paradip port for decades. However, a new outfit, the Utkal Stevedores Association, then stepped into the business and Seaways Shipping is the member of this new group. Upset over this, Mishra started threatening Swain, who was heading Seaways Shipping in Paradip. Mishra also used different tactics like threatening to organise mass strikes at Paradip port, closure of the port using his staff and associates to put pressure on the port and district authorities. The murder of Swain was allegedly conceptualised by Mishra and his associate Rakesh Choubey of Jamshedpur in September, 2015, when Seaways Shipping got a contract from JSPL. But, Mishra managed to maintain pressure on port and district authorities by calling strikes and boycotting port activities,” he added.
“However, the issue cropped up in August and September this year when Seaways Shipping again received a contract from SAIL. While Seaways Shipping had quoted a price of Rs 103 per ton, OSL quoted Rs 143 for the same. Mishra and his associates tried hard to paralyse the port once again, but due to adequate arrangements made by district and police authorities they could not succeed. Frustrated by this, Mishra and his associates allegedly decided to eliminate Swain and pass a message that they can do anything to safeguard the monopoly of OSL,” the DGP further revealed.
“We have arrested eight persons in connection with the case. They are Choubey, Mishra’s close associate who had taken Rs 12 lakh advance from him to hire a contract killer, Riyasat Hussain alias Riyaz from Chakradharpur, a shooter and bomber who spent nearly three years in Saudi Arabia, Md Shamim alias Neem of Chakradharpur, an expert bomb manufacturer, Manoj Gochhayat of Cuttack, a shooter, helper and local guide, Shiba of Cuttack, who had arranged vehicles used by the miscreants, Arindam alias Bapi Sharkel, who used to blackmail port authorities at Mishra’s behest, and Sethy who had arranged everything for Mahima after
the incident,” Orissa police
officials said “So far, we have seized a letter written by Swain in which he has said Mishra and Bal were threatening him, two stolen motorcycles, another bike, an auto-rickshaw, three pistols with 50 ammunition, eight bottles along with gun powder and bomb making material, photographs of Choubey using airplanes of OSL and a fake Aadhaar card having Ranchi address. Investigating teams visited various parts of Orissa, and Jharkhand, Bengal, New Delhi, Haryana and Punjab. We have frozen `5 crore of the miscreants and OSL,” they added.
“Mishra and Bal were involved in the murder of union leader Bichitranand Mallick in 1998 in Paradip. He was involved in a kidnap case, an attempt to murder case in Talcher in 2011, and has role in the murder of Arun Bhatt over a land dispute,” Orissa police officials said.
