Wanted Criminal Injured In Police Encounter In Pipili

Puri: A wanted criminal was injured in a police encounter in Pipili block area of Odisha’s Puri district late on Friday.

The injured criminal, identified as Sarbeswar Behera alias Sarabha, who sustained bullet injury on his right leg, was rushed to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack.

Acting on a tip-off about the presence of Behera in the area, a joint squad of Pipili Police and Baseli Sahi police in Puri raided Kurukhi area near Nijigada village of Kanti panchayat.

Seeing the police, Behera tried to escape. At this, police opened fire at him in which a bullet hit his right leg.

Police later seized the bike and rushed him to the SCB Medical College and Hospital.

Police also arrested Rajesh Patra, one of the associates of Sarbeswar.

Sarbeswar was working as a Home Guard in the Odisha Police. But he was dismissed from his job following his involvement in several criminal activities. He has several cases pending in different police stations in Puri district, police said.

He was arrested for duping the youths of over lakh of rupees promising them to provide government jobs. Besides, he was also collecting money from the drug peddlers.

He was also involved in a firing incident near Gokha Sahi under Baseli Sahi police limits in Puri town on April 22 this year in which a former woman councillor of Puri Municipality Satyabhama Behera had sustained bullet injuries.