3 held, SUV seized

BHUBANESWAR: City Police on Friday arrested three miscreants in connection with the firing on call centre employee Namita Rani Padhi a week ago in Mancheswar Industrial Estate. The three are identified as Jitendra Pradhan, Rajendra Sasmal and Biswanath Pradhan. Four others, involved in the case, are still at large. It was Biswanath, driver with an NGO, who had allegedly hired Rajendra to attack the girl although, police said, they did not want to wound her fatally. Sources said Biswanath had paid ` 3 lakh in instalments to Rajendra who had mobilised the team of five. Bhubaneswar DCP Nitinjit Singh said Rajendra and his team had food at ‘Chanakya dhaba’ near Salipur a day before the incident and CCTV captured it providing solid evidence for conspiracy. “For the last three months, Biswanath had been seeking opportunities to harm Namita and used several persons who tried to attack her and even throw acid at her, but in vain. Then he turned to Rajendra,” Singh said. On April 13 morning, Rajendra led his team and they tracked Namita from Cuttack where she stays. At Mancheswar, he spotted Namita while the sharpshooters fired on her and fled. Police said the motive behind the firing could be pecuniary, but investigation is on. A bike, an SUV and ` 30,000 in cash have also been seized.