Puri: The Sea Beach police Sunday arrested a contractor in connection with a firing incident Saturday night.
A 9 mm pistol, an empty cartridge and a live bullet were seized from his possession.
He has been identified as Md Samsuddhin of PKDA square.
According to police, the Puri municipality had given the contract for construction of a bus stand to Ashok Mohapatra. Milan Mishra and Akuna Parida were monitoring the work on behalf of Mohapatra.
Samsuddhin received a sub contract worth Rs 2.77 lakh from Milan and Akuna for constructing a waiting shed and was paid Rs 2.10 lakh. He had been asking for the remaining Rs 67, 000 for the past two months.
Samsuddhin finally approached a mediator, Aslam, to get his money.
Samsuddhin, Milan, Akuna and Aslam met at Urban Haat Saturday night to settle the dispute.
However, during the discussion, they entered into a verbal duel following which Samsuddhin fired at Aslam.
The bullet missed Aslam, after which Samsuddhin again fired in the air.
Acting on the complaint of Aslam, the police arrested Samsuddhin.