Rayagada, May 25: Rayagada Police have made a major breakthrough in the sensational Nikhil Hadapa murder case by arresting four more accused persons, taking the total number of arrests to 16.
The incident took place on May 9 at Indira Colony in Rayagada, where Nikhil Hadapa was allegedly shot dead in broad daylight. Earlier, 12 accused persons were arrested and forwarded to court. With the latest arrests, police say they have now apprehended key conspirators involved in the case.
According to police, four absconding accused were traced and arrested from different locations outside Odisha after an extensive manhunt. Among them, Chintu alias Debashish Vibhor, Pawan Kalpa, and Sagar Kalpa were arrested from Karnataka after police teams tracked them from Visakhapatnam to Goa and finally to Hubballi.
In a separate operation, another accused, Ajay Devarapalli, was arrested from Palnadu district in Andhra Pradesh. Multiple special police teams were deployed to trace the fugitives who had fled across different states following the murder.
The arrested persons are being brought to Rayagada for further interrogation under remand procedures as investigation continues. The brutal killing had triggered panic in the area following the daylight shooting on May 9.
