Kendrapara:
With the arrest of Seikh Salim, key accomplice of slain gangster Suleiman, police are expecting an end to the gang war for revenge and turf control in Kendrapara.
Salim, picked up last week from the Charampa railway station, when he was about to board a Hyderabad-bound train, was wanted in the October 13 murder of one, an accomplice of gangster Tito, police sources said.
After the July 30 gunning down of Malik Suleiman by his close aides, it was Salim who took over. Two murders and a series of crude bomb explosions followed, police said.
He was leading the gang earlier run by Suleiman, Superintendent of Police, Kendrapara, Narasingha Bhol told reporters describing him as a prized catch.
At least three cases of murder in Puri, Nayagarh and Kendrapara were pending against Salim, police said. Besides he is facing trial in several cases of attempt to murder and extortion.
These included the killing of the aid of a rival gangster to avenge another murder.
Salim joined the crime world at the age of 16 and shot dead under trial Bula Sethy in broad daylight in 1997, as Sethy was being brought to a local court under armed police escort. The incident triggered a state-wide furore.
He soon turned to be a sharpshooter in the Suleiman gang, investigators said.