Junior engr arrested for killing mushroom-seller

Rourkela: A junior engineer associate was on Friday arrested in connection with the murder of a mushroom-seller the day before.The accused was identified as Sanjib Kumar Mohanty (38), who works at a steel plant, and the victim as Bijay Khuntia (61).

According to the police, Sanjib and Bijay sold mushrooms from separate roadside stalls near Narayan Market in Fertiliser Township.

Khuntia’s business was doing well, which allegedly led to frequent disputes between the two vendors. Police alleged that Sanjib often made negative remarks about Bijay’s products and attempted to divert customers to his own stall. On Thursday, some customers bought mushrooms from Bijay’s stall and Sanjib allegedly passed derogatory remarks about the quality of Bijay’s mushrooms.

This led to an argument between Sanjib and Bijay’s son, Abhisek, who was also present at the spot.During the confrontation, Sanjib allegedly pushed Abhisek, who retaliated, causing Sanjib to fall. Police said Sanjib then went to his house, returned with a sword and attempted to attack Abhisek. Seeing this, Bijay intervened to protect his son. Sanjib allegedly assaulted the elderly man with repeated fist blows, leaving him seriously injured.

As his condition deteriorated, Bijay asked his daughter-in-law to take him to Tangarpalli police station to lodge a complaint against Sanjib. However, he collapsed on the verandah of the police station soon after reaching there. He was taken to Rourkela government hospital, where he was declared dead.Following a complaint lodged by Abhisek on Thursday evening, Tangarpalli police registered a murder case and detained Sanjib for questioning. He was formally arrested on Friday. “Further investigation is underway,” Nunaram Tudu, sub-inspector of Tangarpalli police station, said.