'Police Mitra' Killed In Bhubaneswar; Woman Among Three Held

BHUBANESWAR: Unfazed by heightened security measures for Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Bhubaneswar, three armed assailants including a woman hacked a ‘police mitra’ (volunteer) to death on Rasulgarh road over bridge on Wednesday morning.

The accused, who were identified as Lipika Nayak, her husband Laxmidhar and their associate Rocky Nayak, were arrested from Nayagarh district within hours after the gory crime.

Deceased Sahadeb Nayak (36), who was living in the Kedarpalli slum, was an anti-drugs campaigner.

“Lipika was arrested by the excise department recently. She suspected that Sahadeb helped the excise to arrest her. She hatched his murder plot with the other two accused,” police commissioner S Dev Datta Singh said.

DCP Pinak Mishra said “We arrested all the accused involved in the crime within a few hours after commission of the crime. Motive of the crime was previous enmity.”

The gruesome incident occurred around 7.30 am when Sahadeb, who also served as the president of the sweepers’ association of Bhubaneswar, was travelling on his two-wheeler towards Rasulgarh from Vani Vihar on NH-16 after dropping his nine-year-old daughter at school.

The accused who came on two bikes wearing helmets, waylaid Nayak on the Rasulgarh ROB and attacked him in full public view. When Nayak attempted to flee after falling from his bike, the attackers chased him and used a sword to sever his head.