BHUBANESWAR: The Commissionerate Police on Tuesday arrested three persons for allegedly assisting a woman in her attempt to secure a firearms licence by orchestrating a fake life threat, in Bharatpur here.
The accused have been identified as Debasis Mohapatra (24) from Mundasahi, Santosh Mahakhud (25) from Ommkar basti and Chandan Nayak (27) from Bharatpur. However, the key accused Ghunguru Mishra, who orchestrated the fake life threat, alleging before police that bombs were being hurled and gunshots fired outside her residence, is currently absconding. Chandan reportedly worked as a driver for Ghunguru, police said.
Addressing mediapersons, police commissioner S Dev Datta Singh said Ghunguru first lodged a complaint with Bharatpur police on September 11 alleging two bombs had been hurled outside her house the previous day. Later on October 4, she again filed another complaint claiming some unidentified persons in two autorickshaws had fired gunshots on the boundary wall of her house.
Based on the complaints, police launched an investigation and arrested the trio besides recovering a 7.65 mm semi-automatic pistol, one round live ammunition, a motorcycle and an autorickshaw from their possession. During further course of investigation, police found out that Ghunguru had faked both the incidents with the trio to obtain arms licence, for which she had already applied.
“Ghunguru wanted to obtain the licence by projecting certain grounds of life threats to her. To substantiate her claims, she conspired a plan and involved her driver Chandan and the other two accused for its execution. The incidents of hurling bombs and firing were deliberately recorded in the CCTV cameras of Ghunguru’s residence, while the three arrested persons also made concerted efforts to mislead and divert the investigation process,” Singh said.
While Debasish had arranged the firearms, the five rounds of ammunition were provided by Ghunguru. Similarly, Chandan and Santosh arranged the explosives (bombs) used in the incident. Efforts are underway to apprehend Ghunguru, the commissioner said.
