Bhubaneswar, June 3: The Government Railway Police (GRP) today arrested the main accused in a case of attack on cow transporters at the city railway station on May 24.

The accused has been identified as Ganesh Prasad Sahoo, a resident of Cuttack Road.

On May 24, a group of self-proclaimed "gau rakshaks", headed by Ganesh, raided the parcel van of Kochuveli-Guwahati Superfast Express and forcefully unloaded more than 20 milch cows.

The cow vigilantes, who belonged to the Bajrang Dal, then thrashed two persons, who were legally transporting the cattle from Salem in Tamil Nadu to Ampati in Meghalaya. They also beat up the loco pilot and the station manager.

The dairy employees had been held hostage at the station for several hours, while the railway personnel were beaten up when they attempted to resolve the issue.

"Today, we nabbed the main accused after examining the footages of closed-circuit television cameras installed in the station area," said Bhubaneswar Government Railway Police station inspector-in-charge Soubhagya Swain, adding that Ganesh had been booked for unlawful assembly, assault, rioting and deterring a public servant from discharging his duty.

Sources said Ganesh was president of the Old Station Bazaar Durga Puja Committee and also owned a lodge and a kalyan mandap (wedding venue) along Cuttack Road here.

"The investigation is on. We will intensify the drive to arrest the other accused involved in the case," said Swain.

This is the third arrest in the case, in which employees of Vertex Agritech Private Limited, a dairy firm, and two railway personnel had been assaulted. On May 26, the GRP arrested Sudarshan Biswal of Puri and Sibananda Panda of Nayagarh district.

Sources said the cows, which had been rescued from the station, were kept in a club at Budheswari Colony in the city and later transported to Guwahati.

On April 12, Mancheswar police seized a truck illegally carrying about 100 cattle at Rasulgarh in the city.