BERHAMPUR: Rayagada police on Saturday, September 4, 2021, arrested three persons on the charge of murdering a local photographer on August 31. The arrested trio are L Simanchal, Balaram Padhy and E Samaresh. Addressing mediapersons on Sunday, additional SP Shankar Prasad Dwivedi said extra-marital affair was the reason behind the murder of photographer B Rajkumar. The accused confessed to their crime during interrogation.
The ASP said Rajkumar and Simanchal, an auto-rickshaw driver by profession, were friends. Rajkumar used to visit Simanchal’s house regularly and subsequently, developed a relationship with his wife. Simanchal tried to stop his wife from indulging in the illicit affair but failed. He then decided to eliminate Rajkumar.
On August 31, Simanchal left home with his three-wheeler saying that he was going to Andhra Pradesh to drop a passenger. However, he stayed in Rayagada and kept an eye on Rajkumar. The same evening, Rajkumar arrived at his house. Seeing him, Simanchal lost his cool and attacked the photographer with help of his friends Samaresh and Balaram.
When Rajkumar became unconscious, the trio took him to his own home where they strangled him to death and hanged him from the ceiling fan, to make it appear as a suicide. Police recovered Rajkumar’s body the next day and during postmortem, it was found that he was murdered. On the day, the accused trio was produced in court and remanded to judicial custody.