Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, June 9: Commissionerate police Thursday arrested the prime accused in the Jatani highway murder case in which a young girl was battered to death with a stone on the roadside of National Highway near Gangapada village May 5.
The accused was identified as Manas Nayak (27), of Fatehgarh in Nayagarh district, who stayed at CDA Phase-II in Cuttack district.
Police said Manas has confessed to his crime.
The police had hardly any lead to proceed on in the case. There were no witnesses or CCTV footage. The deceased also seemed to have very few friends. The deceased also did not have her phone with her. Gangapada villagers had May 6 morning spotted the body of the young girl in jeans and polo neck T-shirt with a battered head and face. Three alcohol bottles were also seized from the crime scene by the police.
The deceased had moved to Cuttack from Bhubaneswar a couple of years ago and worked at a tea stall as a labourer. She reportedly was popular among locals at Badambadi.
Over the last one year, the girl had developed love affair with Manas who drove an auto rickshaw and took tea at the stall. However, Manas was married and also kept a physical relationship with the deceased simultaneously, investigation officer ACP TK Pattnaik said.
The deceased had grown possessive and started insisting that Manas marry her. She had also stopped letting him keep physical relationship with him without marriage.
Manas met the deceased May 5 evening and told her that they would go to Bhubaneswar that night. On way, Manas bought liquor and stopped by near the village. “Manas had planned it already and wanted to eliminate the deceased as she was drunk already,” Pattnaik said.
Manas allegedly smashed her face with a stone. Police said Manas had allegedly also tried to rape her before killing her, but did not succeed.
The tea stall owner became the first person to tell police that the deceased was in love with someone named Manas. However, there were 10 people named Manas in Badambadi area who drove auto rickshaws.
Police honed in on the correct person after his phone was found to be the only one that had been switched off after the incident. The accused had also disappeared from the area after the incident and gone to his father-in-law’s house.
