Raja Acharya’s accomplice Chagala (above) after landing at the Bhubaneswar airport. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, April 24: Two days after the surrender of Chagala before Bhopal police, the right-hand man of gangster Raja Acharya was brought to Bhubaneswar today by a four-member team of Orissa police.

The April 13 murder of coach Biranchi Das had taken a curious turn on Tuesday after Chagala told a private TV channel in Bhopal that he was hired by senior IAS officer Priyabrata Patnaik and Oriya album co-ordinator Jubuli Sundaray to kill Das.

He had also named Sundaray as the man responsible for shooting the coach with a Mouser.

Chagala’s “confession” was a departure from the line of investigation being followed by the city police. The personnel had zeroed on gangster Raja Acharya as the prime accused, taking circumstantial evidence into account.

The Bhubaneswar police have brought Chagala, who was produced before a court of chief judicial magistrate at Bhopal yesterday, on a three-day transit remand.

The personnel, with the accused arrived at the airport amid tight security and Chagala was whisked away to a “secret” venue for further interrogation.

Later in the afternoon, it was revealed that he was interrogated at Infocity police station. Commissioner B.K. Behera led the interrogations.

A detailed probe would be started after Chagala is produced before the SDJM court in the evening.

The special team constituted to investigate the Biranchi Das murder case would be interrogating Chagala thereafter.

Although the commissioner declined to divulge any details, he said that the police had some “clues” and that would be followed up.

Senior police officers were reluctant to buy Chagala’s version of the murder and so he is likely to face strict cross-examination. Narco test might also be conducted on him.

Another close aide of gangster Raja Acharya, Tukuna alias Sarat Sahoo, who was arrested from Cuttack on the same day, is also being interrogated.

With the two important aides in their net, police are confident of tracing Raja and find out the real motive behind the murder. So far, series of raids conducted to nab the gangster have proved futile.

Adequate security measures have been taken to avoid any untoward incident. Apart from armed personnel keeping a close vigil in and around the venue of interrogation, policemen in plain clothes have also been deployed.