April 21: The main accused in the kidnapping of Keonjhar businessman Rashmi Ranjan Mohapatra was arrested from Jamshedpur yesterday.

Arshad Pervez also confessed that he had kidnapped and killed the trader in May 2007. Acting on a tip-off, a joint team of Jamshedpur and Bolangir police raided possible hideouts in Jamshedpur and finally arrested the accused from Mango.

He was escorted back to Orissa yesterday and interrogated in Bolangir today. Pervez confessed that he had acted on instructions given to him by gangster Hyder (now lodged in Bolangir jail) and had kidnapped the trader on May 27, 2007.

The trader was kept in a drugged state for a day, but when he tried to escape, Pervez shot him in the head and then burnt the body. He also confessed that he had murdered Rashmi Ranjan’s driver during the kidnapping. The driver’s body was found in Tamar (Jharkhand) on May 28 and the Innova in which the two were travelling was found abandoned near Dhanbad railway station on May 30.