Rourkela: Police made a breakthrough into the murder of the father of a church at Rourkela and produced the accused in court Saturday.
The accused identified as MD Hyder admitted to the crime. The throat of Abraham Surin, Father of GL Church, located at Khunti district of Jharkhand, was slit for Rs 10,000 May 5 night.
During interrogations by Rourkela GRP, Hyder, belonging to Janatpur in Jharkhand’s Khunti district, said he earns his livelihood by repairing torch lights and selling keys and locks in Jharkhand. He came in contact with the Father when the latter had come to him to get his torch repaired four months ago. He borrowed Rs 10,000 from the Father to invest it in business.
However, he failed to repay the money. The Father had been insisting on him to repay a total of Rs 11,000 including the interest, Hyder said.
Unable to repay the sum, Hyder made a plot to eliminate him and called the Father May 5 to Rourkela on the plea of repaying the loan there.
According to the plan, the Father reached Hatia station, from where Hyder escorted him to Rourkela by a train. They reached Rourkela at 6.30 pm that day. After spending sometime at the platform they had dinner at a nearby hotel.
Later, Hyder took the Father to the railway over-bridge in a hired auto-rickshaw. He killed the Father there by slitting his throat using a sharp-edged weapon.
Hyder threw the body beneath the over-bridge. He deleted the call details from the mobile phone of the Father and threw it near the body. He also destroyed his two SIM cards and fled.
He slept at a place near the railway station on the day of the crime and returned to Khunti and resumed his business, Hyder said during interrogation.
Khunti superintendent of police (SP) Anish Gupta started an investigation on getting clues from Rourkela railway SP and from the call details of the mobile phone of the Father. From the call details, police came to know that Hyder talked to the Father for over 40 times during the last two months. Later, police arrested Hyder from Janatnagar. He was handed over to Rourkela GRP.
However, another police officer said Hyder called the Father to Rourkela by luring him into getting Hanuman coins. From the bank account details of the Father, police came to know that Rs 1.5 lakh was withdrawn from his various accounts before he came to Rourkela. Police are yet to ascertain on which heads the father spent the money. Further investigations were on. PNN