Court extends police remand of former Congress MLA

The Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate's court here today remanded former Congress MLA Ramesh Jena, arrested in connection with several cases of crime, in police custody for another seven days.
Earlier the same court had granted police the custody of the ex-MLA from Sanakhemundi in Ganjam district for five days, which expired today.
Jena was arrested on March 6 on charges of possession of illegal firearms and harbouring offenders. At least three cases were registered against him prior to the arrest. Another two cases, including one of murder, were registered against him after his arrest.
Police sought Jena's custody contending his custodial interrogation will help it gather evidence against the ex-MLA in cases pending against him.

Meanwhile, police raided the house of Saka Sujit Kumar, a Congress leader and supporter of Ramesh Jena at Kukudakhandi.
Sujit had unsuccessfully contested the state assembly election in 2014 from Digapahandi assembly segment on Congress ticket.
Police suspect that an expensive car, said to be worth over Rs 1.30 crore, with Haryana registration number which was used by the ex-MLA had a fake registration number.
"During our preliminary inquiry, we found that no such vehicle was registered under this number in Haryana. We have written to the car company to ascertain the owner of the vehicle," said SP (Berhampur) Sarthak Sarangi.