Chhendipada: Two cousins who were reported to be missing for over a week were found to be murdered and buried in a 20-ft deep well, with their bodies being exhumed Thursday in Kushalika village under Jarapada police limits in Angul district.
The deceased — identified by police as Yogeswar Sahoo (31) and Hiranakhya Sahoo (38) — were buried in a well on the premises of a Saraswati Sishu Mandir in the village.
Police said a trader named Jhasaketan Rout was picked up by police ever since the cousins had gone missing. Sources said the families of the deceased had identified Jhasaketan as the main suspect as they shared a bitter rivalry in the past owing to conflicting business interests.
Police were however unable to get any leads into the case till Wednesday night, when Jhasaketan in a startling confession admitted to having killed the duo and burying the bodies.Acting on the confession, officials immediately launched a drive to exhume the bodies.
That however proved to be a mammoth task: an earthmover was pressed into service with several officials from the district administration and the police department coordinating the excavation. After a 12-hour long exercise that stretched past Thursday midnight, diggers came across the mutilated body of Yogeswar, buried below 18 feet of earth. Hiranakhya’s body was buried another two feet below, according to police sources.
The double murder left even the most stoic of police officials lost for words as they attempted to make sense of the grisly killings – the bodies were found with their private parts chopped off and the faces bludgeoned beyond recognition.
As news of the incident spread, hordes of villagers descended upon the spot. Around 30 platoons of police force were deployed to maintain law and order.
“The two cousins were killed over business rivalry. The accused has been arrested and produced in court. We will urge the court to grant three-day remand of Jhasaketan,” SDPO Rabinarayan Deo said.
The siblings went missing last Thursday and the family members lodged a kidnapping case with police Saturday after Yogeswar was spotted with an unidentified person on a motorcycle. Jhasaketan and his aides were accused of kidnapping the siblings while the family staged an agitation at the police station demanding to know the whereabouts of the youths. The families also met the SP over the incident. Though the police detained the prime accused along with some others, they were clueless over the disappearance of the siblings till the confession was obtained.
However, it is learnt that more skeletons tumbled out during the course of the interrogation — Jhasaketan confessed to having murdered a woman named Abala Gadnayak (60) and her nephew Kumud Chandra Sahoo (28) of Nuamouza village of Kukurpeta panchayat, who were reported to be missing since August 15, 2015. Jhasaketan employed the same modus operandi by burying the bodies on the school premises. Sources said retrieving the bodies of Abala and Kumud would prove to be tricky as a staff quarters now stands over where their bodies were buried. Jhasaketan is said to have murdered the duo so as to avoid repaying them a loan of Rs 12 lakh that he had taken from them.
It was learnt that the accused, who deals in real estate and is also into money-lending, is an influential person in the locality. However, he began having some differences with Yogeswar’s father and former sarpanch Rajkishore Sahoo over some land deals and financial transactions which resulted in the killings of Yogeswar and his cousin.
Jhasaketan said he managed to lure the two cousins to the spot of the crime where he brutally murdered them. He then dumped the bodies one after the other in the well, and proceeded to fill it with salt, straw, compost and sand in order to destroy evidence.
Village guard Prasanna Nayak, office night watchman Biju Sethi and a relative of Jhasaketan were detained on suspicions of assisting Jhasaketan in the crime, investigating officer Satyabrata Rout said.
Angul sub-collector Prasanna Kumar Das, Chhendipada BDO Pabitra Behera, additional tehsildar Hrudananda Addha and IICs of several police stations along with SDPO Deo were present during the exhumation.
On the other hand, the bereaved families Friday met DIG (north-central range) Jatindra Koel and asked for police protection since the accused is an influential person in the district and reportedly has links with several political heavyweights in the state.
Jhasaketan is said to have accumulated wealth worth several crores of rupees in the last few years after getting the patronage of powerful politicians as well as the police department. He is also rumoured to have been involved in the chit fund trade. Villagers demanded that his political links be investigated. State Mahila Congress chairperson Sasmita Behera, during a press meet, also demanded a CBI probe into the murders, accusing several ruling party leaders of investing in chit funds run by the accused. PNN