Murder Near Polling Booth In Odisha: 8 Held In Bargarh, Prime Accused Still On The Run

Bargarh: Police have detained eight youths in connection with the murder of an auto-rickshaw driver transporting voters to a polling booth in Odisha’s Bargarh Lok Sabha constituency while the prime accused is on the run.

The Sadar police are interrogating the youths and also conducting simultaneous raids at several places to nab others involved in the case.

According to sources, following a meeting of Sambalpur RDC at the Sadar police station where the Additional Superintendent of Police and other officials were also present, a police team has been constituted to nab the prime accused.

Raids are being conducted in different places and phones are being tapped as Inspector General of Police Himanshu Lal and Bargarh SP Prahalad Sahai Meena are themselves monitoring the developments in the case.

Auto driver Biswanath Mirdha was killed with a sharp weapon (bhujali) on Monday when he was on his way to Sarsara polling booth. He was carrying the voters to the polling booth when he was stopped by a group from going to the booth. This led to a clash between the two groups and the murder of Mirdha.

While the police have said that the auto driver’s murder was not related to election but the result of an enmity between two groups, the prime accused is yet to be arrested and locals are not ready to accept the police statement.

The murder took place only around 400 metres from the polling booth.