Titilagarh: Police Monday arrested a youth following the murder of a Plus II college girl whose body was recovered from a canal in Gulami forest under Titilagarh police limits in Bolangir district.
The matter came to light after IIC Bijayanada Karkara revealed the murder plot at a press conference. The murder was the fallout of a relationship gone sour, Karkara said.
The main accused, identified as Benudhar Bagarthi of Bankel village, was arrested while his associate managed to escape.
The absconding person was identified as Bagarthi’s cousin Trinath Adjuad of Kandakhal village.
According to sources, the girl was studying Plus II at a Muribahal college. Family members lodged a missing person’s complaint at Titilagarh police station after the girl went missing November 5. Acting on a tip-off, police recovered the girl’s body from a canal in a forest near the village after five days.
Failing to bring the body from the isolated village for post-mortem, a doctor team visited the spot and conducted the post-mortem before burying the body in the forest. Later, police came to know that the girl left the village along with Bagarthi and Adjuad on a motorbike.
Acting on a tip-off, police arrested Bagarthi who initially denied his involvement in the girl’s murder but later confessed to committing the crime, said police sources. Police registered a case of murder and seized the motorbike used in the crime. The two allegedly strangulated the girl using a towel. Police also seized the girl’s notebook with Bagarthi’s name written in it.
“Initially, Bagarthi denied having anything to do with the girl’s murder. He said he did not know the girl and when asked how his name figured in the girl’s notebook, he replied that she could have referred to somebody else of the same name. Soon after, however, after repeated interrogation, Bagarthi broke down and confessed to his crime,” a police officer said requesting anonymity.
Police interrogated him and later produced him in a court, it was learnt. PNN
