BHUBANESWAR: Even as Balangir police claimed an extra-marital angle to the murder of Sunshine English Medium School's lady teacher Mamita Meher, the victim's parents alleged that she might have been killed over a flesh trade racket running in the hostel on the campus at Mahaling.
They claimed that Mamita had confronted Gobinda Sahu, who is the president of Sunshine School's managing committee and one of the founders of Anchalika Mahavidyalaya, a higher secondary school located on the same campus, during the pre-COVID times over the racket running in the hostel. Apart from being a teacher, Mamita also served as warden of the girls' hostel of the school.
Sources said that Sunshine English Medium School teachers and Anchalika Mahavidyalaya students were staying on the same campus. "Mamita was reluctant to leave for Mahaling. However, she went and informed her mother at 9.30 am on October 8 that she had reached the hostel. After that we could not establish any contact with her," the victim's uncle, Kaushik Meher told The New Indian Express.
Her family members contacted her colleagues and students to know about her whereabouts but to no avail. The victim’s father Suchandra Meher and her brother Bunty also went to meet Gobinda in Mahaling on October 10 but he denied having any knowledge about her.
“When she went missing, we contacted her colleagues and friends and came to know that she had a heated exchange with Gobinda over a year back over the illegal activities in the hostel. Gobinda confronted Mamita and six to seven teachers and students on that day and she showed him two photographs as proof, following which he held a grudge against her,” said Kaushik.
Mamita had then returned to her house in Balangir’s Jharni village after the outbreak of the pandemic.
Asked whether police will investigate into the allegations of Mamita’s family members, DIG (northern range) Deepak Kumar said that so far they have been able to only establish that Gobinda had developed bitterness towards her after she threatened to expose his extra-marital affair to his family.
The DNA samples of Mamita’s parents will be sent to the State Forensic Science Laboratory (SFSL) soon for examination to confirm that the body remains recovered from Mahaling Stadium are of the victim, he said. In the complaint lodged on October 12, Mamita’s family members had categorically mentioned Gobinda’s name and said that he had kidnapped her.
Sources said, Gobinda was detained on the intervening night of October 14 and 15 but he outrightly denied the allegations. He then fled from Titlagarh barrack on October 17 and was nabbed from a sugarcane field under Bangomunda police limits in Balangir on Tuesday.