Bolangir: Sadar police here Sunday unraveled the mystery behind the murder of a missing man whose half-burnt body was recovered from a farmland in Pandrapita. A Nepalese national was arrested on the charge of the murder.
The accused was identified as Prakash Bahadur Basnit (35), a chowkidar at a cotton mill in Bolangir and a native of Nepal.
Basnit strangled Surendra Mahar (35) of Sagarpada to death after he found the latter trying to rape his wife after straying into his house Tuesday night, said sub-divisional police officer Narayan Nayak at a press meet Sunday.
Basnit was produced in a court after he confessed to the crime during interrogation.
Two persons who assisted Basnit in disposing of Surendra’s body are absconding.
The vehicle in which Basnit and his associates carried the body to the farmland in Pandrapita has been identified and will be seized soon, police said.
The sarpanch of Barkari noticed the half-burnt body and informed Sadar police Friday. Police team led by IIC Jyotirmaya Bhukta recovered the body and started an investigation.
Surendra’s brother Tito Mahar reached the spot and identified the body. Later, he lodged a complaint in the police station.
Surendra was married and a driver by profession. He scaled the rear compound wall of Basnit’s house and tried to rape his wife Tuesday evening.
Basnit entered the house in the meantime and a fight ensued between him and Surendra. Basnit overpowered him and strangled him to death.
He hid the body in his house for the night and tried to dispose it with the help of his associates Wednesday. They brought a Tata Ace van and took the body to a farmland near Pandarapita where they set fire to it after dousing it with kerosene. PNN
