BERHAMPUR: Doraguda police in Rayagada district arrested a 54-year-old man on Saturday for allegedly murdering an elderly person over the suspicion of sorcery. Five others were detained in this connection on Friday.
The accused was identified as Iswar Dora and the deceased is Gopal Dora (63). As per police, both Iswar and Gopal are from the same village, Doraguda in Kashipur block.
Police sources said Gopal had left home for the market on January 9 but did not return home. Later, his family lodged a missing complaint, following which police launched a search and recovered his body with hands and legs tied, from a nullah on Thursday.
As the body bore several cut marks, police registered a murder case and sent it for postmortem.
The postmortem report revealed it was murder. During further investigation, police found that the villagers suspected Gopal practised witchcraft. Eventually, five persons were detained for questioning. Basing on their inputs, the cops nabbed Iswar from Puri on the day. “Further investigation is underway,” said police.