Police nab Sarkhel from Raipur

In a major breakthrough, the Jagatsinghpur district police arrested Bapi Sarkhel, the contractor and owner of private construction firm- Paradeep Parivahan Ltd, engaged in construction of coastal road leading to the proposed site of Posco India's steel mill.

The arrest follows registration of a case against Sarkhel and others of the construction agency on charges of rioting. During construction of the coastal road, a violent clash had occurred between the supporters and opponents of Posco project on December 14 at Bose Callis point under Kujang police station limits, resulting in the death of one person besides injuring 25 others. Sarkhel was arrested from a hotel in Raipur in the wee hours of Friday, police said.

Acting on a tip off, two teams led by Gupteswer Bhoi, inspector in charge of Kujang police station raided the hotel in Raipur and nabbed the contractor, said S Devdatta Singh, superintendent of police (Jagatsinghpur). With Sarkhel's arrest, the number of people arrested in the aftermath of the violent incident has gone up to six. Singh said, police had earlier raided Sarkhel's office at Paradip. The incident had snowballed into a major controversy with the Opposition as well as ruling party legislators accusing Sarkhel of fomenting violence and raising an unrelenting demand for his arrest.