Bhubaneswar Market Building Attack ‘Mastermind’ Detained Under NSA

Bhubaneswar: The Commissionerate Police on Friday detained notorious criminal Chintu Mohanty under National Security Act (NSA) for his alleged involvement in the attack on vendors and vandalism at Unit II Market Building here on January 10.

According to sources, he was the mastermind behind the attack.

Six other anti-socials — Gopinath Nayak, Smruti Sagar Mohapatra, Suraj Sahawere, Chandan Das, Biswanath Pradhan and Pratyush Kanhar, were earlier booked under NSA in connection with this incident.

NSA is a stringent law that allows the preventive detention of a person for months if the authorities are satisfied that he/she is a threat to national security or law and order. The person does not need to be charged during this period of detention. The goal is to prevent the individual from committing a crime.

On January 10, a group of masked men had attacked street vendors with sticks and sharp weapons and ransacked more than 100 shops in the market complex.

Following the incident, police had arrested 25 youths, including 16 minor boys and a son of a DSP.