Odisha Police crack Pitabash Panda murder case, arrest 12 including former MLA and ex-Mayor

A fortnight after the murder of BJP leader and lawyer Pitabash Panda in Berhampur city, the Odisha Police on Wednesday cracked the much-publicised case by arresting 12 people, including former MLA and current Ganjam district Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president Bikram Kumar Panda and former Berhampur Mayor Sivshankar Das.

It may be recalled here that motorcycle-borne assailants shot dead Panda in Berhampur city late on the night of October 6. Panda, also a practicing lawyer and a member of the Odisha State Bar Council, was fired at point-blank range near his house in Brahma Nagar.

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Berhampur Superintendent of Police Saravana Vivek M said that Panda and Das had plotted to eliminate Panda over financial, personal, and political reasons.

Sisupal Kumar Pashwan and Kundan Kumar were hired to eliminate Panda with Uma Bisoyi, one of the arrested accused persons, providing him with two guns and Rs 10 lakh to execute the crime. The murder was pre-planned to be executed on September 14. However, the wife of Pashwan, who was pregnant, had an abortion. That prompted them to defer the murder.

Later, two other history-sheeters – Kurupatti Bhuyan and Chintu Pradhan – were hired to murder Panda. The duo was provided with a bike bearing a fake registration number and pistols to execute the murder. The duo was provided accommodation in a bachelor’s hostel in the city.

Narrating the sequence of the crime, the police said Pradhan rode the bike while Bhuyan rode pillion. They reached the traffic junction near the house of Panda and waited. At 10.01 pm, when Panda reached the location, Bhuyan got down from the bike and stopped Panda, and fired at him using one of the pistols.

The telephonic conversations of the arrested persons, before and after the crime, provided prima facie evidence and clinching proof of a conspiracy to kill Panda.

Das has a history of crimes, with as many as 38 criminal cases pending against him.

Ironically, Bikram Panda and Pitabash Panda were close friends since their college days. However, in 2018, when Bikram Panda, then in Congress, hopped to BJD, there was a breakup in their bonding as Pitabash was opposed to it.

Both Bikram and Das were at loggerheads with Pitabash over business interest, political rivalry, as well as animosity at personal level. That drove them to eliminate the BJP leader by hiring criminals, police added.