Puri: The Puri police on Monday claimed to have cracked the sensational murder case of Jagannath temple servitor Krushna Chandra Pratihari and arrested six persons.
“As of now, we have arrested six persons in connection with the murder of Krushna Chandra Pratihari while three accused involved in the murder are yet to be arrested. Multiple raids are being conducted to nab them. They will be arrested soon,” Puri SP Kanwar Vishal Singh said while briefing the media.
The arrested have been identified as Kalia Singhari, Dalgobinda Singhari, Kalu Panigrahi, Munna Patra, Baba Mohapatra and Sandeep Jena.
All the accused will be produced before court today. The cops will appeal the court to take all the arrested accused on remand for interrogation and scene recreation.
“Kalia Singhari and Dalgobinda Singhari who are father-son are the main conspirators of the crime. They engaged lodge manager Kalu Panigrahi to arrange other people and to plot and execute the crime,” Singh said.
Speaking about the motive of the crime, Singh said, “As of now, the investigation revealed that they eliminated Krushna Pratihari in to take revenge. However, there might be other reasons too which are under investigation.”
Prima facie, it is suspected that Krushna Chandra Pratihari was shot dead out of vendetta. In fact, the accused persons had earlier made an attempt to kill the senior servitor. Further raids are underway at various places to nab three other accused, the senior cop added.
On March 16 morning, Pratihari was shot at point-blank range by miscreants near Barabati area in Puri. The servitor was rushed to the hospital he was declared dead.
