Prime suspect arrested in Biranchi Das murder case

NI Wire

Bhubaneswar

Mon, 05 May 2008: 

Raja alias Sandeep Acharya, the prime accused in the murder case of Biranchi Das - the coach of marathon kid Budhia singh – has reportedly been arrested by Goa police on Monday.

Biranchi Das was shot dead by three unidentified persons on April 13 outside Orissa Judo sociation Club in Bhubaneswar.

The capital police then on assertion of victim’s wife and brother launched search operation for Raja Acharya.

Meanwhile, the Bhubaneswar police have sent a team to bring him back to Orissa. Earlier, a city court on Saturday had declared the gangster as an absconder and issued a non-bailable warrant against him.

The murder case took a dramatic turn when another suspect and close associate of Raja Acharya- Akshay Behera alias Chagala surrendered himself to the police in Bhopal and revealed some fact of their link-up with top cops of Bhubaneswar.

The police later in its investigation found some personal rivalry between the coach and the gangster, though the real motive behind the murder is yet to come to light.

On Thursday, the Bhubaneswar police had also questioned popular Oriya actresses Leslie Tripathi who had reportedly sought help from the Judo coach and later from senior IAS officer Priyabrata Patnaik asking him to protect herself from the gangster.

In the wake of allegation and pressure from opposition parties, the Orissa government later preferred to transfer Priyabrata Patnaik from the post of Principal Secretary in Commerce and Transport Department as `officer without duty'.

Patnaik later did give his consent of intervening in the case involving Raja Acharya and Leslie Tripathi following request from latter’s father.

With the arrest of Raja, the chief intention of the murder believed to be come out soon.