RAYAGADA: Another accused involved in firing at a garment shop in Rayagada town, Mann Singh alias Manu, was arrested by the police from New Delhi on Wednesday. He was the accomplice of main accused in the case, Prabhat Rana of Uttar Pradesh, who was arrested by Todagada Police here a few days back.
Rana hails from Ghaziabad and police had arrested him from Visakhapatnam. He was in a relationship with sister of Mohit Ashrani, who owns the garment shop near Srigundhicha temple in the daily market of Rayagada town. He used to interact with her regularly on social media. After marriage of the girl was fixed recently, she discontinued interacting with Rana which irked him. Subsequently, he, along with Manu, visited the girl at Rayagada.
When Rana proposed to the girl, she turned down the offer. Rana and Manu then hatched a plan to eliminate Ashrani. They fired two rounds of bullets at the shop of Ashrani on November 20 night. He had shut his shop around 9.30 pm and left for his house. The following morning, when he opened the shop, he found two bullet marks in the glass door of the shop. Police had seized two 7.65 mm cartridges from inside the shop.
Sub-Divisional Police Officer RK Dash said both Rana and Manu had arrived in Rayagada with an intention to kill Ashrani for fixing the girl’s marriage elsewhere. A country made pistol and six rounds of live cartridges were seized from Rana. According to police reports, both the accused were involved in several incidents of crime, including attempt to murder, extortion, arms deal offences and are wanted by Delhi Police. Rana has 22 cases pending against him while Manu is wanted in 27 cases. Manu was produced in a local court which remanded him in judicial custody after rejecting his bail plea.