Two arrested persons in police custody in Cuttack on Thursday. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, July 5: Two more contract killers involved in the alleged kidnapping and murder bid on a woman, who was thrown off the Jobra bridge, were arrested today.

So far, nine persons, including five contract killers, a former judge, his wife and son have been arrested for conspiring to kill the 23-year-old Mini Pradhan, alias Meena.

Mini was rescued after being thrown off the Jobra barrage on May 8. She has been undergoing treatment at the orthopaedics department of SCB Medical College and Hospital.

Police sources said the two accused — Alarnath Patra, and Nursingh Das — both 27, along with three more associates Prashant Sahoo, 26, Bijoy Mallick and Suvendu Biswal, 19, who is an MCA student, were involved in Mini’s kidnapping.

While Prashant and Bijoy were arrested on May 15, Suvendu was nabbed on May 17. Jagatpur police had arrested former judge Samir Ray, his wife Gitika and son Satyabrata on May 9. Mini says she is Satyabrata’s wife though his family has refuted the claim.

“Both the contract killers were arrested from Bhubaneswar yesterday and they have been produced before the court today. We are verifying the criminal antecedents of both the accused who hail from Dhenkanal and Bhubaneswar respectively,” said deputy commissioner of police S. Praveen Kumar.

However, senior police officials said both Satyabrata and Meena Pradhan were in a relationship and the elder Rays had conspired to eliminate her after their son’s marriage was fixed with another girl.

Contract killers were hired to kill Mini, who was working as a maid at the residence of the former additional district judge Samir Ray at Lumbini Vihar since 2007.

The Ray family had promised to pay the killers Rs 3.5 lakh for eliminating Meena. Satyabrata had initially paid Rs 10,000 to Prashant Sahoo, who had masterminded the entire kidnapping act.