The Commissionerate Police on Monday claimed success in the alleged ‘contract killing’ plot to eliminate a businessman at Nayapalli last month by arresting the mastermind. The accused has been identified as Rajendra Mallick. Earlier, two more persons- Prashant Das and Sampad Sahu had been arrested in connection with the case.
Notably, Rajendra, the Commissionerate Police said, was earlier arrested by the Delhi Police in connection with a job fraud in December 2020.
The Commissionerate Police have recovered Rs 5 lakh cash, 20 mobile phones, 50 ATM cards, swapping machine, 4 laptops, Press identity cards, rubber stamps and letter pad of Capital Hospital from Rajendra’s house.
Bhubaneswar DCP, Umashankar Dash said that all the three accused came in contact with each other during their incarceration at Choudwar jail in 2008. Rajendra had sought help of two of his friends- Prashant and Sampad to eliminate a businessman living at Nayapalli area since the latter was not returning a borrowed amount of Rs 30,000, said Dash.
On November 26, police managed to nab Sampad while he was inquiring about the ‘target’ location near a nursing home in Nayapalli area.
“The trio reached the area in a car and a two wheeler. While Prashant stood near the parked car, Sampad and Rajendra went to a liquor outlet on a two wheeler. While the duo was seeking information about the whereabouts of the businessman at a shop near a nursing home, our team managed to nab Sampad. Later, we had arrested Prashant,” said Dash.
The senior police official further informed that during search of Rajendra’s house, several documents were recovered. It has been ascertained that all the documents were forged as the names of the persons and their photographs did not match, he said.
“It appears that the forged documents were used to create fake identity. Rajendra had also opened over 100 Facebook and Gmail IDs, websites and youtube channels,” said Dash.
During the Commissionerate Police investigation, it has been revealed that Rajendra was arrested by the Delhi Police in December 2020 in connection with a fake job racket case. He had duped over 20 aspirants by opening a fake website in the name of GMR company.
“Though Rajendra was arrested in that case, his co-accused Santosh Panda was absconding. When we contacted Delhi police, we found that the picture of Sampad Sahu was used to create the identity of Santosh Panda. We have sought more information. We will seek Rajendra’s remand by making a request to a court. A separate case will be registered in connection with the fake documents and ATM card recovery case,” Dash added.