Police on Wednesday arrested four more persons in connection with the murder of teacher Alakananda Mishra, even as the main accused Paresh Mohaptara reportedly confessed to have committed the crime.
Paresh allegedly admitted to have strangulated Alakananda with her ‘dupatta’ following a dispute on July 29. He had then taken her body to Kaliaboda and cremated it with the help of transport in-charge of his school Pranabas Ray (40), an associate J Kameshwar Rao (37) of Mangalabag, municipality sweeper Srikanta Nayak and ambulance driver Hrushikesh Sahu of Biridi in Jagatsinghpur district.
The ‘dupatta’ used for the murder has been recovered from his office on the school premises at Barabati Stadium while the ambulance used to take the body for cremation has been seized along with Paresh’s car.
Mobile phones belonging to Paresh and the victim, besides a pen drive, have also been seized.
Police said Alakananda had come in contact with Paresh, Principal of St Xavier School, Cuttack, in 2010 after quitting her job as a teacher in Bhubaneswar. She had found a job as Principal of Omm International School at Balangir. A relationship had developed between the two, both of whom were married, and they had moved in together to live in a rented house at CDA sector 10 nearly a year back.
However, on August 27, a complaint was lodged by Alakananda’s brother Debaprasad Mohapatra stating that she was missing. He suspected that she had been killed. During investigation, it came to light that Paresh had been staying with Alakananda for nearly a year. On July 29, she was killed and her body was burnt the same night. Paresh had vacated the house immediately on August 1 and had moved all the belongings to his school and some others to his house at Chauliaganj.
The motive behind the murder is being ascertained, Commissioner R P Sharma told mediapersons here on Wednesday.