Bhubaneswar, May 14: Police today arrested former Congress MLA Yudhisthir Samantray from here in connection with the murder of BJD leader and Pipili panchayat member Sushant Mishra.

Samantray, who had represented the Pipli Assembly constituency from 1995 to 2000, was the arch-rival of agriculture minister and present MLA Pradeep Maharathy.

Susant, a 38-year-old businessman, was allegedly chased and beaten to death by a group of people near a private engineering college at Sunderpada on January 5. The police had acted on the complaint made by Sushant's mother Ritanjali Mishra.

Ritanjali had alleged that the former Congress legislator and his supporters killed her son over political rivalry. She had also named 27 others excluding Samantray in the complaint lodged with the Pipili police in January.

"Pipili police had registered a case in January on the basis of a complaint filed by the mother of the deceased. According the complaint, as many as 27 persons were involved in the murder case. We have so far arrested six of the accused and Samantray was wanted in the case. We will take him on remand," said Puri police superintendent Sarthak Sarangi.

In January, the police had also raided the Madhipur residence of Samantray at Pipili and his relatives' houses in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, but could not find any lead about his whereabouts.