Berhampur, March 6: A joint team of police today raided an apartment at Khandagiri and detained former Congress MLA from Sanakhemundi Ramesh Jena in connection with a bombing case.

Later in the evening, the supporters of Jena staged a demonstration in front of Town police station in Berhampur demanding his release, forcing the police to resort to lathicharge.

Police said that Jena was detained in connection with a bomb attack on the house of Ranjit Kumar Nayak, a Congress councillor of Berhampur Municipal Corporation, early in the morning of February 29.

Police also recovered several weapons, including a pistol, three mobile phones and cash worth several lakhs during the raid today. "The search operation is continuing and we are interrogating Jena," said DIG (southern range) Amitabh Thakur.

Berhampur police had earlier launched a hunt to nab Prem Panda alias Bapi for hurling bombs at the residence of Nayak. The police raided Jena's Khandagiri flat this morning after being tipped off about Bapi's presence there.

Jena, however, pleaded innocence and said that he had no idea why he was picked up. "The police came to my house and took me away in the middle of the night. I have no idea why did they do so," Jena told newspersons while being taken from Bhubaneswar to Berhampur.

A police officer said that around 20 criminal cases were pending against Jena. The police had raided Jena's flat in February, 2011, when he used to live at Kharavela Nagar in Bhubaneswar. The raid had led to a gunfight between his aides and the police, which lead to his arrest. Even before this, Jena was arrested in January 2010 in connection with Chicken Rabi murder case in Berhampur.

In the evening, police also detained a councillor of the Berhampur Municipal Corporation, who is also known as a loyalist of Jena.

After the councillor was detained, hundreds of his supporters attempted to barge into Town police station, leading to a scuffle between them and police.