PARALAKHEMUNDI: CONGRESS’ sarpanch candidate Mini Dalabehera’s (31) husband was detained by Mohana police on Tuesday along with two others in connection with Mini’s murder. Bajendra Dalabehera is suspected to have plotted Mini’s murder.
Mini, who had been missing since January 13, was found dead in Jirang under Mohana block of Gajapati district on Monday. A resident of Baghamari village, she had filed nomination for Sarpanch post of Baghamari panchayat on January 11.
She had come to Chandragiri along with her father Paul Dalabehera and mother Nalini Dalabehera on Friday. While her parents returned to their village, she had stayed back for some work. Later in the day, she visited a bank at Chandragiri and met the bank manager over withdrawal of money for election expenditure. Although she was supposed to return to Baghamari the same day, she did not. Bajendra and Mini’s parents tried to contact her, but could not reach her. They lodged a missing complaint in the local police station.
On Monday, some villagers found her burnt body in a forest behind a temple in Jirang. The body also bore multiple injury marks. Although locals had suspected that she might have been raped and murdered, postmortem report confirmed that she was not raped.
On Tuesday, police reached the bank and seized the hand bag, ATM cards and passbooks of Mini.