The Khordha district police on Monday rounded up nine persons for allegedly assaulting Chilika MLA Prashant Jagdev after the legislator ploughed his vehicle through a crowd on March 12.
On the direction of the Superintendent of Police, Khordha, a Special Squad led by the sub divisional police officer (SDPO), Balugaon, had been conducting raids at different places following the incident. Acting on inputs, the team on Monday raided some hideouts in a jungle near Old Bankadagarh palace, Niladriprashad and apprehended the nine persons named in the FIR.
While the police are yet to reveal the identity of the arrested persons, they were quietly produced in the Judicial Magistrate First Class court, Banpur for remand.
Earlier, during investigation, the police had seized two vehicle registration plates, bearing number/s OD 25 K 5775 and OD 02 AY 5775.
Later it was found out that the first number was registered in the name of one Kumar Debadatta and the second (a Hyundai Creta) belonged to Shibani Food Products Private Limited in Rajasunakhala, Nayagarh.
In this regard, the owners of the Creta as well as Discovery car had been asked u/s-91 CrPC to produce the original documents of their respective vehicles by 5 pm on April 2, 2022.
Notably, on March 12 Jagdev was heading towards Banpur Block for the Block chairperson election when he had to stop due to heavy rush in front of the Block office. Instead of slowing down the vehicle, Jagdev allegedly drove it into the crowd. At least 22 people were injured in the incident.
The infuriated mob then attacked the Bahubali MLA and also vandalised the vehicle. A severely injured Jagdev was initially admitted to the Banpur hospital and later shifted to a Bhubaneswar based private hospital. He was arrested after his discharge from the hospital on March 22.