Phulbani: Biswaranjan Kahar alias Bapi, the key accused in the Phiringia police station arson case, was arrested on Sunday. He is accused of setting the Phiringia police station in Odisha’s Kandhamal district on fire with a section of local villagers on August 5.
Biswaranjan was arrested from Phulbani town. With his arrest, the total number of people arrested in connection with the case reached 24, investigating officer (IO) and DSP Kamalakanta Panda said.
According to reports, Biswaranjan had allegedly instigated others to commit the crime on that day. He is a former sarpanch of Phiringia gram panchayat in the district.
It is worth mentioning here that hundreds of angry villagers had set the phiringia police station on fire over the alleged involvement of the local IIC and two police personnel in the illegal trading of cannabis. The agitators demanded strong action against the police station in charge Tapan Kumar Nahaka and home guards Prashant Patra and Rabi Digal.
Earlier, local villagers had staged a roadblock at Phiringia Block Office Chhak over the issue.
The villagers accused that a police vehicle loaded with cannabis had gone to Budhakamba village on the night of August 3 to sell cannabis to a peddler. Phiringia sarpanch Jalandhar Kahar and former sarpanch Biswaranjan Kahar intercepted the vehicle along with several villagers. They also took videos of the incident on mobile phones and sent them to Kandhamal SP Suvendu Kumar Patra the following day demanding action against the three policemen. However, no action was taken and the villagers allegedly set the police station on fire on August 5.
Biswaranjan said, “We are just trying to stop illegal activities by a section of police personnel. If people sell cannabis, it is illegal. Here the police themselves are involved in such illegal activities.”
