Berhampur/Cuttack:
A murder accused who has been evading arrest for the past 20 years, was arrested in Ganjam district during the special drive launched by Odisha Police to execute all pending non-bailable warrant (NBW), an officer said.
Odisha Police has launched a special drive to execute all pending non-bailable arrest warrants from March 7.
The accused identified as Rajendra Das, 42, alias Bula Das of Sarabhimapur village under Chhatrapur police station limits, was arrested from near Purushottampur on Wednesday night, said Inspector-in-charge of Chhatrapur police station Priyas Ranjan Chotray.
Rajendra along with two others of the same village had allegedly killed the son of Gopi Das in the village on October, 16, 2000. Police had recovered his decomposed body on January 19, 2001 and arrested two persons.
Since then Rajendra was missing even though the other two accused persons have been convicted by the court in the murder case.
He had changed his name to Bula Das and was working as a mason in the village.
Acting on a tip-off, we raided his house and arrested him from the village, police said.
The mother of the man killed identified him as one of the accused persons who had killed her son, police added.
The special drive to execute all pending NBWs will continue till March 14, sources said.
During the drive police had also arrested another murder accused after 30 years from Kalingapadara village under Tarsingi police station limits in Ganjam district on Tuesday.
The accused identified as Pradip Nayak alias Das was involved in a murder case at Cuttack in 1991. Acting on a tip-off, that Nayak was in the village, police arrested him.
Sources said the Odisha Police has launched a special drive for execution of pending NBWs from March 7 till March 14. The results so far are very good, an official said.
A total of 973 warrants have been executed within three days till March 9, the official said, adding that a good number of warrants have been executed in Ganjam, Nayagarh, Cuttack, Balasore and Kendrapara districts in these three days.