BALANGIR: Puintala block vice-chairman Santosh Gurandi was arrested by local police on Wednesday for allegedly assaulting an assistant engineer (AE) few days back. Gurandi was also the prime accused in the 2019 Puintala BDO abduction case.
Reportedly, on February 23, BDO Rabinarayan Acharya had written to Collector Chanchal Rana alleging Gurandi’s high-hand behaviour towards block officials and other illegal activities. In the letter, Acharya had stated that Gurandi, along with Jatha Biswal who is husband of Puintala block chairman Jamuna Biswal, was coercing block officials and had recently assaulted assistant engineer Narendra Naik at gun-point.
The Collector had forwarded the letter to the SP following which Gurandi, who was already on police radar as the prime accused in the BDO abduction case, was arrested. He was forwarded to court on Thursday. In March 2019, Gurandi along with his associates had abducted the then Puintala BDO Saroj Mishra and held him hostage for over five hours before police rescued him. While three had been arrested in the case, Gurandi had managed to abscond and was stripped of primary membership by the district Congress soon after.