Police moves court to declare Raja absconded

Bhubaneswar, May 3 (UNI) Police today moved court seeking order to declare gangster Sandeep Acharaya alias Raja, the prime accused in the murder of Judo coach Biranchi Das, as an absconder.

Police Commissioner Binay Behera said police had already moved the court after the latter declared him as an absconder. He would be given some time to surrender.

If he did not surrender, his property would be attached, the Police Commissioner said.

Biranchi Das, the former coach of marathon wonder kid Budhia, was shot dead by some motorcycle-borne assailants in the Judo Assciation campus on April 13 last.

Police suspected Raja Acharya behind the murder and raided many hideouts during the last 20 days to nab him but failed.

Askhaya Behera alias Changala, a key suspect in the murder and one of the close associates of Raja, who surrendered before Police at Bhopal a week after the murder, had reportedly also told police during the interrogation that Raja had killed Biranchi.

Though the exact motive behind the murder was not yet known, policemen probing three different angles - extortion, Raja's alleged crush on a starlet in which Biranchi was to mediate and railway scrap deal.

Police said the motive would be known after the arrest of Raja.

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