Bhubaneswar: In a major breakthrough, the Crime Branch CID Monday arrested five persons in connection with the murder of BJP Khurda Mandal president Manguli Jena on April 14. The arrested persons- Dibyalochan Gajendra, Simanchala Badajena, Papin Dalasinghray, Chandrakant Pradhan and Ispat Maharana, have been identified as residents of Nirakarpur police station area in Khurda district, sources said.
While all five were forwarded to JMFC Court, Tangi, the CB has reportedly submitted a plea to take them on police remand for further investigation and collect other vital clues.
As per reports, there are as many as 17 cases pending against Gajendra, 11 cases against Badajena, four cases against Papin, two cases against Chandrakanta and three against Ispat.
The CB officials claimed that the attack on Manguli Jena on April 4 which killed him was the second murder attempt and coincidentally three of the five arrested were involved in the earlier attack.
On August 31, 2016, Dibyalochan, Simanchala and Papin had fired 5-6 rounds of ammunitions on Manguli Jena in an attempt to kill him but Jena sustained injuries on both his legs and somehow survived. The assailants on the other hand absconded and were not traceable for the last two and half years.
On April 4, 2019, a bike-borne miscrent fired three rounds of bullets and killed Manguli Jena near party’s Nabina Bag office in the town.
Khurda BJP MLA candidate Kalu Khandayatra who witnessed the incident had said, “As Jena was about to leave us after a meeting, we were discussing with him on the road while suddenly, a person riding a scooty came and shot two rounds of bullets at him and also opened fire another round of bullet at me. Even though I escaped unhurt, Jena was killed.”
It is alleged that Jena’s murder is a fallout of political violence and past rivalry. While BJP had alleged involvement of BJD in the murder, the BJD had strongly refuted.
Reportedly two cases have been registered against the accused and investigation of both the cases is still underway.