Puri: As many as four persons were detained Sunday evening by the local police in connection with the alleged murder of Puri Jagannath temple senior servitor identified as Krushna Chandra Pratihari.
A source said that Puri SP Kanwar Vishal Singh will brief regarding the details in a press conference later Monday. Out of four detainees, two are said to be the main conspirators of the murder. However, the police have not made any official statement in this regard so far.
On promise of anonymity, a senior police official said, “Four detainees include accused Kalia Singhari and his son Dolagobinda, who are the key conspirators. Names of the detainees were mentioned in an FIR earlier lodged by Narasingha, brother of the deceased servitor.”
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The two other detainees are Baba and Kalu. However, whereabouts of a few more accused persons namely Hari Panda, Prafulla Mohapatra and Kunmuni have not been known yet, the senior official stated.
Details about involvement of others will be disclosed in the presser.
It is pertinent to mention, Pratihari was a member of Suar Mahasuar Nijog. He was gunned down by some miscreants March 16. Supari (contract) was given to eliminate the victim, who was an accused in the murder case of Taluchha Bhagaban Mohapatra alias Guna Singhari in 2012. He was recently acquitted along with five others.
Four teams of police were formed and the probing-teams conducted raids at many places to gather more information on Pratihari’s murder. While two of the police teams carried out raids in Pipili, Satapada, Brahmagiri and Krushnaprasad areas, another two teams carried out a number of searches in Ganjam, Balasore and Bhadrak districts.
Two rounds of bullets were removed from Pratihari’s head during post-mortem, Thursday. He was hit by bullets on his head from behind. The senior servitor Pratihari was shot at point-blank range by unidentified miscreants near Barabati locality in Puri. He was later admitted to Puri district headquarters hospital where doctors declared him ‘dead’.
Besides, there is a close link of Pratihari murder case with that of Guna Singhari. The two conspirators detained by Puri police in the Pratihari murder case are said to be family members of Singhari.
Singhari was a member of Jagannath temple managing committee. He was returning from a community centre when he was shot dead by two men. Pratihari was named as key conspirator of the murder.
PNN
