Bhubaneswar, Oct 22 (IANS) The police have finally cracked the sensational case of the brutal assassination of BJP leader and senior advocate Pitabash Panda, who was shot dead near his residence in the Baidyanathpur Police station area in Odisha’s Berhampur on October 6 with the arrest of 12 people, an official said on Wednesday.

Those arrested include former Biju Janata Dal (BJD) legislator and the party’s district president Bikram Kumar Panda and his close associates, revealed District Superintendent of Police, Saravana Vivek M. on Wednesday.

Other persons arrested by the police for their involvement in the case are former mayor of Berhampur Municipality, Sivashankar Dash alias Pintu, Malaya Kumar Bisoyi, Madan Mohan Dalai — both are advocates and are said to be close associates of BJD leader Bikram, and Kalucharana Bhuyan, Bipin Swain, Chintu Pradhan, etc.

The Berhampur police revealed that a probe was launched to unravel the conspiracy behind the murder and nab the accused killers by constituting six teams of the district police.

The police during the course of investigation ascertained that both former BJD legislator Bikram Panda and his close associate and ex-mayor Pintu Das conspired together to eliminate deceased BJP leader Pitabash Panda due to financial and political reasons as well as personal enmities with the victim BJP leader.

The accused Pintu Das had personal enmity with Pitabash Panda who was the advocate in a case related to the murder of the ex-mayor’s close associate and friend, Shanti Mishra.

Pintu held Pitabash responsible for the delay in the trial in the murder case of his friend and the release of some of the prime accused persons involved in the murder that took place in 2013.

Meanwhile, the former mayor also held instigation by Pitabash responsible for murder bids on his life by one such accused Mouza Mishra who was out on bail and has absconded.

Pintu Das has also filed two cases in which the deceased BJP leader has been mentioned as one of the accused.

Pintu Das also believed that he was denied the MLA ticket due to the influence of Pitabas Panda.

On the other hand, Pintu Das, who has 38 criminal cases against his name, was in jail for around four years. After his release from the bail, he was in regular touch with BJD leader Bikram Panda.

Both the accused, ex-MLA Bikram Panda and the victim, Pitabash Panda, had been close friends since their college days.

However, in 2018, when Bikram switched parties, Pitabash chose not to follow him, which led to a rift between them.

Over time, the former friends turned bitter rivals and began harming each other socially, financially, and politically, deepening the enmity between them.

Later, Pintu Das and Bikram Panda hatched a conspiracy to eliminate Pitabash and engaged Malaya Bisoyi, Madan Dalei to execute the murder plan through hired sharpshooters from Bihar.

The accused conspirators agreed to pay Rs 50 lakh for the murder.

However, the plan failed due to personal problems of hired sharpshooters. Later, they engaged Kurupatti Bhuyan and Chintu Pradhan of the Banthapalli village in Ganjam district who shot Pitabash to death near his house on October 6.

The Berhampur SP also informed the media persons that manhunt is on to arrest three more accused including Uma Bisoyi and Kurupatti who are still at large.

–IANS

gyan/pgh