KENDRAPARA: Police on Wednesday arrested a senior BJD leader and former councillor of Kendrapara municipality Sk Rehamat for alleged involvement in the gun attack on BJP leader and district VHP vice-president Vivekananda Moharana on July 13 this year.
Vivekananda was returning to his house at Gulanagar after attending an election meeting of BJP at Patkura on his motorcycle when he was shot at by four unidentified miscreants in front of Gulanagar High School in the town. The VHP leader sustained bullet injuries.
“The arrested BJD leader Rehamat was the councilor of ward no 12 from 2011 to 2016. He was the mastermind of the crime. He has been booked under Sections- 341, 307 , 120 (B) and 34 of IPC and Sections 25 and 27 of Arms Act,” said Kendrapara SDPO Rajiv Lochan Panda.
Earlier on July 18, police had arrested Alok Mallick (22) of Indupur village, Sk Sakir (28) of Kendrapara town, Trilochana Mallick (24) of Charigaon village and Sankar Sethi (29) of Nembera village in the case. On August 6, gangster Usman Ali’s aide Sk Mehetab of Jayapura village was arrested by the police, he said.
Rehamat was produced in the court here on the day where his bail application was rejected. He was remanded in jail custody, added the SDPO.
VHP, Bajrang Dal and associations of businessmen had organized a 12-hour bandh in Kendrapara district on July 17 to protest the inaction of police in nabbing the miscreants.