Ex-Bhse Officials Arrested For Brokers Murder

In a sensational move, the criminal investigation department (crime branch) of Orissa police arrested former president of the Bhubaneswar Stock Exchange (BhSE), T D Bhayana and former treasurer Anjani Singh for criminal conspiracy and abetting the murder of a stock broker of bourse seven years back.

Arrests have been made on the basis of evidence given by the widow of the deceased, inspector general of police (crime branch), Amarananda Patnaik said. Both Bhayana and Singh, who were subjected to intense interrogated by the police today, are likely to be produced before the court tomorrow.

They have been booked under Sections 120B, 34, 27, 302,307,452 of Indian Penal Code relating to charges of criminal conspiracy, illegal arms possession and abetting a murder.

Bhayana, who resigned as BhSE president in February this year, is also under investigation for his involvement in a recent financial scam at the exchange. A report prepared by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has found that of Rs 1.5 crore was siphoned off from the members' welfare trust of the bourse, Rs 40 lakh had been appropriated by India Finance Guarantee Ltd (IFGL), a broking firm owned by Bhayana.

Patnaik said, two persons belonging to Jharkhand area were hired to commit the crime. One of them, Raju Giri, was picked up by a team of CID officials in Ranchi on February 25 while he was on his way to attend a college function there. He is now in the judicial custody in Bhubaneswar.

The other accused, Hidayat Khan. was taken into custody by the West Bengal police in Calcutta on May 22, for his involvement in a number of crimes.

Orissa police, meanwhile, has written to the Bengal police requesting to hand him over for interrogation in murder case.

The broker, Vinod Agrawal, was shot dead in broad daylight inside the bourse premises on March 30, 1995. One of the office staff of Agrawal, who was also fired at, was hurt in the assault.

The murder remained unsolved for long with the state police unable to trace the killers. The police had even closed the case giving a final report on the incident. However, the state CID had recently reopened the case after it came across prima facie evidence against the accused and established motive for carrying out the crime.

The CID investigation has revealed that a section of brokers led by the then bourse president Bhayana and treasurer Anjani Singh had conspired to eliminate Agrawal because of their business rivalry with him arising out of illegal trading of shares in the bourse.

The CID sources said, the police officials in charge of the investigation then had colluded with the perpetrators of the crime to suppress the case. The administration has initiated steps to take action against the guilty officials.