Bhawanipatna: Police in Odisha’s Kalahandi district arrested three individuals within 24 hours of the alleged murder of local BJP leader Fakir Rana, the husband of Dam Karlakhunta gram panchayat sarpanch Snigdha Rana.
The incident occurred on Wednesday evening, around 8 pm, near the panchayat office under Madanpur Rampur police limits. Rana, also associated with the BJP’s Mohangiri Mandal, was returning from a meeting when a group of assailants attacked him following an altercation. He was chased and repeatedly stabbed with sharp weapons roughly 100 metres from the office. Locals found him lying in a pool of blood and rushed him to M Rampur community health centre, where he was declared dead on arrival.
A formal complaint was filed by the victim’s family, following which Kalahandi police launched an investigation. Multiple teams conducted raids, leading first to the detention of two suspects and then to the arrest of a third after interrogation. The arrested persons have been identified as Tulsiram Sahu and Sura Singh Patra, both from Dam Karlakhunta village, and Baldev Sahu from Pattamunda village.
“Based on the information and formal complaint received at the Sainthala police station, we initiated an investigation and detained two accused initially. The third accused was arrested yesterday following an interrogation. All three accused named in the complaint were arrested within 24 hours,” Kalahandi SP Nagaraj Devarakonda told reporters.
The stated that preliminary findings point to previous enmity as the motive. “The incident occurred after a heated argument broke out between the victim and the three accused, who were sitting and consuming alcohol near Karlakhunta GP office,” he added.