Report by Amarnah Parida; Jagatsinghpur: Police in Jagatsinghpur, in an encounter at Chattra , opened fire at a gang of criminals injuring gang leader  while arresting three  including the councilor of Jagatsinghpur Municipality and another accused person who gave shelter them to hide out on Friday.  .

Acting on a tip-off, a team of police led by inspector Mr Satish Ray raided the house of one Bana Das of Chattra village under Jagatsinghpur police limit by 2.30 AM  on Friday where dreaded criminal Ajit Das alias Pahali, 35 gathered to plan their next act of crime.

Seeing the police, the criminal Durga Das alias Nanda who is councilor of Jagatsinghpur Municipality opened fire at the law enforcement officials while trying to flee from the scene but his firing did not work. During this time, gang leader Pahali managed to flee from the spot but police chased them to nab him.

During chasing, gang leader Pahali opened four rounds of firing to police personnel to escape from the spot. In a counter, the police then shot back three rounds of firings at accused Pahali in which he was seriously injured. Pahali was brought to the district headquarter hospital, Jagatsinghpur where he was being treated for bullet injuries in his lower hip.

Meanwhile, police has arrested his accomplice Nanda and house owner Bana for giving shelter to hide out these dreaded criminals and forwarded them to the court.

In a press meet, Superintendent of police Mr Satyabrat Bhoi said gang leader Pahali had been involved more than eight criminal cases in Jagatsinghpur and Naugaon police limits while Nanda had involved one criminal case. Besides this, Pahali had been involved pistol smuggling theft cases so he was arrested by police from Cuttack recently. Two pistols, six rounds of live cartridges and four mobile phones have been seized from them’. He added.

Yesterday, traders of Jagatsinghpur intensified stir by giving bandh call for rise of criminals and deterioration of law and order situation in Jagatsinghpur. Effort of police to nab these dreaded criminals have brought satisfaction among the locals.