Cuttack, May 3: Police today filed a charge sheet against Odisha Stevedores Limited managing director Mahimananda Mishra in more than a four-year-old bombing and attempt to murder case.

The state CID-crime branch arrested Mishra from Thailand on December 25 last year in connection with the murder of Seaways Shipping and Logistics Private Limited general manager Mahendra Swain in Paradip.

The present charge sheet has named Mahimananda Mishra as the conspirator, along with the prime accused Ganesh Sahu, in the bombing and murder case.

The case is related to hurling a bomb at a lawyer, Abhay Bhatt, at Press Chhak in Madhupatna police limits in 2013. At that time, a case for attempt to kill Bhatt had been registered at Madhupatna police station. But it had languished and gone into oblivion till the arrest of Sahu from Markatnagar in December last year.

The police said Sahu confessed to have hurled the bomb at Bhatt at the behest of Mishra. Subsequently, the police implicated Mishra in the case and took him on a three-day remand (January 14 to 17) for further investigation.

Sources said the charge sheet claimed that the investigation led to the finding that Mishra had conspired to kill Bhatt. Sahu had executed the plan by hurling the bomb at Bhatt while he was travelling in a car at Press Chhak on September 21, 2013. But, Bhatt had survived.

Assistant public prosecutor Biswajit Baral said: "The charge sheet filed today has named Ganesh Sahu as the accused and Mahimananda Mishra as co-accused in the Bhatt bombing and attempt to murder case under various sections of the IPC and the Indian Explosives Act."

"The charge sheet indicates that the police have examined 44 witnesses in the case," he said.

The charge sheet was filed before the court of the sub-divisional judicial magistrate following completion of investigation in the case. With the case being filed, it is now left to Cuttack sub-divisional judicial magistrate Bijay Kumar Das to frame charges and commute the case to the appropriate court for trial.

As things stand today, Mishra is in jail as the court of sub-divisional judicial magistrate (Cuttack) and the court of district and sessions judge (Cuttack) had rejected his bail petitions in the case. His bail plea filed in Orissa High Court is pending adjudication.

Mishra's bail petition in the Paradip murder case is also pending in the high court. At present, he is lodged at Choudwar jail.