Paradip, Nov. 17: Industrialist and promoter of a private port in Gopalpur Mahimananda Mishra has allegedly masterminded the murder of a rival shipping company's general manager by hiring contract killers from Jharkhand and Cuttack city, police said today.
Mishra is absconding, the cops added, saying that a lookout notice had been issued in his name to ensure that he did not leave the country.
Five persons, three of them from neighbouring Jharkhand, have been arrested in connection with the murder. General manager Mahendra Swain of the Hyderabad-based Seaways Shipping and Logistics limited (SSLI) was gunned down over stevedoring business rivalry in Paradip port on October 26.
Inspector general (central) Soumendra Priyadarshi told The Telegraph: "Mishra, who owns Orissa Stevedores Limited (OSL) and controls cargo handling stevedoring work at the port, planned to kill Swain as the rival Hyderabad-based shipping firm was eating into his grip on business at the port."
Mishra allegedly entered into a criminal conspiracy along with three of his colleagues to murder Swain. "There is prima facie complicity in the case," Priyadarshi said.
He added that Mishra, who is absconding, had not been cooperating with the investigators in the probe.
Swain was shot dead on a busy thoroughfare in Paradip on October 26.
The assailants were all contract killers and had been hired by Mishra and his associates as SSLI was emerging as a potential business rival of the Odisha-based stevedoring farm, the police said.
Rakesh Choubey from Sonari in Jamshedpur, who was working as Mishra's henchman, was allegedly paid Rs 12 lakh at OSL's Cuttack office and assigned the task to kill Swain.
Choubey, a history-sheeter, was probably paid more after the murder was committed, the police said.
The cops have seized photographs in which accused Rakesh is seen using Mishra's private aircraft. Choubey apparently travelled to Jamshedpur, Calcutta and Cuttack in search of contract killers. Finally, he picked up four persons from Jharkhand and Cuttack, Priyadarshi said.
Choubey hired sharpshooters Riyasat Hussein and Mohammad Shamim from Chakradharpur in Jharkhand to execute the murder. Two local criminals - Manoj Gochayat and Shiba (both from Cuttack city) - were also hired as they were well acquainted with the lanes and bylanes and escape routes of Paradip city.
The antecedents of Hussein are being further looked into as he was found to have spent two years in an Islamic country, Priyadarshi said.
The involvement of some more people in the incident cannot be ruled out, the police said. Three bikes and an autorickshaw used for the crime have been seized. Two of the bikes were found out to have been stolen. The police have also seized three pistols, 50 rounds of ammunition and explosive substances from them. "A letter relating to a threat to Swain's life has been seized and sent to handwriting experts," a police official said.
Raids are being conducted at several places in and outside the state to nab industrialist Mishra and his accomplices. More than Rs 5 crore in the accounts of OSL has been frozen. Incriminating documents have been seized from the accused persons' houses and offices during the raids. Mishra and his colleague B.K. Bal had also been accused of killing trade union leader Bichitranand Mallick in 1998. Mishra was also allegedly involved in a kidnapping case in 1995. Mishra and Bal were both let off in these cases. Mishra's involvement in other criminal cases is also being looked into, the cops said.
In another development, the police today conducted raids on the office of Congress leader Bapi Sarkhel in connection with the murder.
Police sources, however, refused to divulge any details, stating that the raids were presently still going on.