After 20 days of the shootout at Bhanjanagar sub-jail, police claimed to have made some headway into the incident. Interrogation of one of the accused has revealed involvement of some contractors in the incident.
On February 12, an undertrial (UTP) prisoner, Kalia Swain, was shot dead at the Bhanjanagar sub-jail by two other UTPs.
The deceased, Kalia, was a double murder accused from Hinjli and lodged in the jail on August 6 last year. The other two UTPs - Manoj Pradhan and Bapi Bhoi alias Debasis - were also murder accused. At 4 pm on that day, three visitors requested the jail authorities to meet UTPs - Kalia, Manoj and Bapi. Incidentally, the three UTPs were rivals. After a couple of minutes, two of the visitors pleaded the warder to hand over a food packet to Manoj and Bapi. When the warder opened the gate, they passed on the packet to Manoj and Bapi who took out Mausers from it and pumped in five bullets at Kalia, killing him on the spot.
The two UTPs, after killing Kalia, managed to escape from the jail on a motorcycle but were nabbed later. As both of them were injured in police firing, they were admitted to MKCG Medical.
On Saturday, after Manoj was discharged from the hospital, police arrested him. During interrogation at the Bhanjanagar police station, Manoj reportedly admitted to have received ransom of Rs 10 lakh for killing Kalia.
Even as the investigating SDPO, Ramesh Chandra Sethi, denied to disclose further details as it would hamper investigation, he revealed that some contractors had paid Manoj the money and fire arms to kill Kalia.