Senior BJP leader Jayanarayan Mishra and his aide were today arrested and sent to jail for their alleged involvement in the attack on a Odisha minister's brother in Bargarh district in which a man was killed, the police said.
A police team from Bargarh picked up Mishra, a former minister, from his house in Sambalpur town, said Padampur sub-divisional police officer Laxmi Narayan Panda.
He said an associate of Mishra identified as Shiba Kumar Diwan was also arrested.
With this, the total number of arrests in the incident that took place last month rose to eight, the SDPO said.
Mishra, also a former minister, was arrested after police obtained concrete evidence of his involvement in the incident and he was booked under various provisions of the IPC including section 302 (murder) and Arms Act, he said.
The BJP leader was produced before the court of judicial magistrate first class at Sohela, Sasmita Mishra who rejected his bail application and remanded him to judicial custody for 14 days.
Asked about the arrest of Mishra, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told reporters in Bhubaneswar that the law would take its own course.
The police faced some resistance while taking Mishra into custody as BJP supporters gathered near the police vehicle and opposed the arrest. The police persuaded them and arrested the leader.
The attack took place in the early hours of February 23 a day before the by-election to Bijepur assembly seat in Bargarh district. Odisha Labour Minister Susanta Singh's brother Subrat and three others were injured by a group of men in Banabira area in the incident.
The attackers also fired at the vehicle and smashed its windshield with stones.
One of the four persons injured in the attack later died while undergoing treatment at SCB Medical College Hospital in Cuttack. He was identified as Dileswar Sahu, the driver of the vehicle.
Mishra termed the police action against him as a "political conspiracy" and demanded a CBI probe into the incident.
BJP state unit president, Basant Panda condemned the arrest of Mishra and said it was "an attempt to suppress the people's voice in democracy".
BJP supporters staged a demonstration in Bhubaneswar against the arrest and accused the ruling BJD of using the police to harass opposition leaders.
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