Courtsey – Bangkok Post

By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, December 26, 2016 : Leading businessman and stevedoring magnate Mahimananda Mishra and his associate, were on Sunday arrested by immigration police in Thailand from a hotel in Bangkok in connection with the murder of the executive of a rival stevedoring company in Paradeep.

“Mahima Mishra and his associate Basant Bal have been detained at the immigration centre in Bangkok on the request of Odisha police. A team from Odisha has already left for Thailand to bring him back. He will be arrested formally on reaching Odisha,” Odisha Director General of Police K B Singh told media persons.

Mishra and his associate were staying at a hotel in the Pratunam area in Bangkok posing as tourists. Odisha police had issued a lookout circular against him.

Mishra is the managing director of Orissa Stevedores Limited, which controls over 90 per cent of stevedoring operations of Paradip port. He has been accused of masterminding the murder of Mahendra Swain, an executive of Hyderabad-based firm Seaways Shipping and Logistics Limited.

Swain was shot dead on October 26 by hired killers at Paradip while he was on his way to office.

Swain’s brother named Mishra and three executives of his firm in his complaint.

Six men, including Bapi Serkhel, a Congress leader who allegedly harboured the killers, were arrested last month. Mishra has been accused of paying Rs 12 lakh to the main killer Rakesh Choubedy in September.

Police sources said, Swain’s murder was a culmination of a crisis that started in April last year when Jindal Steel and Power Ltd quashed its stevedoring agreement with Mishra and signed a deal with a consortium of three, one of which was Seaways Shipping and Logistics Ltd. In October this year, Steel Authority of India signed a two-year contract with Seaways Shipping. Police officers said Mishra was reportedly upset over losing his grip over the Paradip port.