Paradip: Taking serious note of the brutal killing of Mahendra Swain, General Manager of Seaways Shipping and Logistics Private Limited (SSPL) who was shot dead by two unidentified miscreants in the morning hours on October 26, police has formed five special teams to nab the assailants.
Acting on the complaint by Rajkishore Swain, elder brother of Mahendra, against some of the officials of the Odisha Stevedores Ltd (OSL) including the company owner Mahima Mishra, executive director (ED) Basant Bal, manager (operation) Subash Acharya and senior manager Debi Prasad Tripathy for their involvement in the murder, police had begun investigation into the incident.
Police had raided Add Annex Nursing Home in the name of Basant Bal near College Square in Cuttack late on Friday night. Prior to this, raids were conducted on the house of the aforesaid OSL officials in Salepur, Mahanga and Basapur near Kendrapara town.
Talking to media persons today, Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP), Paradip, Gadadhar Pradhani said police has been conducting raids at different places in Odisha since last fortnight.
“Five special teams have been conducting raids at the suspected hideouts of the accused against whom a complaint has been lodged by the brother of the deceased. At present, two teams have gone outside Odisha to trace out the assailants. “We are trying all possible means to nab the assailants and the mastermind in the murder of Swain. We hope that we will succeed in our investigation,” the ASP added.
He also said police is the process of collecting detailed information about the whereabouts of OSL executive director, the role of manager (operation) and the works assigned to the senior manager.
“We have collected information about the absence of these three senior officials since the day of the incident,” he added.
On November 10, police had frozen the OSL bank accounts in Bank of India as well as the personal accounts of Bal, Tripathy and Acharya.
Notably, Swain was shot dead by two unidentified miscreants near Ambedkar Bhavan at around 9.30 am on October 26 when he was on his way to his office in his Scorpio vehicle.
Two bike-borne unidentified miscreants first hurled bombs at Swain’s vehicle. When Swain tried to flee, the assailants opened fire targeting at his head killing him on the spot.
Swain’s family members alleged that it was a pre-planned attack on him. SSPL had become an eyesore to OSL after it had bagged a contract from Jindal Steel and Powers Limited (JSPL).