Kendrapara: Unidentified miscreants shot an engineer dead over extortion demand at the construction site of a power transformer sub-station at Chakoda under Town police station here Thursday.
The deceased was identified as Debashis Sahu (27), a native of Talcher and an engineer of consultancy agency Gupta Power Infrastructure, Bhubaneswar, SP Dayanidhi Gochhait said. Sahu was overseeing the construction of the sub-station, the SP said.
Sahu collapsed on the spot after a bullet struck his chest. He was rescued in a critical condition and rushed to the district headquarters hospital from where he was shifted to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack after his condition deteriorated. There, doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.
A team of Town police led by the SP rushed to the spot and conducted a probe. Police seized a bullet from the spot while a sniffer dog was pressed into service. Police launched a manhunt to arrest the killers. Town police registered a case and detained a person in this connection, the SP said.
Preliminary inquiries suggested that extortion demand is the reason behind the murder as Town police intensified the probe by examining various aspects relating to the incident, the SP added.
The incident occurred when two motorbike borne miscreants came near the Chakoda-based sub-station site Thursday afternoon. While one of them waited on the bike another went near the site’s gate and enquired about the site engineer from the security guard. The miscreant fired a round of bullet at Sahu and fled with his associate on the bike. PNN