JEYPORE: Seeking justice for her husband’s murder in 2020, a 30-year-old woman of Uttar Pradesh arrived at Jeypore in Koraput on Wednesday. Arati Devi, a resident of Unnao district of UP, along with two of her relatives went to Jeypore police station and met the investigation officer of the case.
Sources said Arati’s husband Siba Prakash (32) and three of his friends had visited Boipariguda on August 16, 2020. But his friends returned to Unnao without him on August 24. When asked about Siba, his friends said they had no information as he went missing in Boipariguda. Arati had last talked to her husband over phone on August 22.
On September 28 the same year, Boipariguda police recovered a skeleton near Khatiaguda and suspecting it to be of Siba, informed Arati. The woman and some relatives reached Boipariguda and identified the skeletal remains.
An unnatural death case was registered while police collected DNA samples of Arati and her daughter for further verification. After the DNA matched, police stepped up investigation. During probe, police came to know that Siba was carrying a huge amount of cash and suspected that he might have been murdered for the money. In June 2021, police found out that three persons of Boipariguda had murdered Siba and disposed of his body. Subsequently, police arrested one Chandra Khosla of Boipariguda for Siba’s murder but two other accused were absconding.
Meanwhile, Arati was unaware of the developments as there had been no communication from Koraput police in this regard. On Wednesday, she landed in Koraput to find out the details of her husband’s death case. Jeypore SDPO and investigating officer Arup Avishek Behera said, “We informed Arati that the prime accused in her husband’s murder has been arrested and efforts were on to nab the two others. We also requested her to share details of the three friends of Siba who had accompanied him to Boipariguda.”
Sources said police suspect that there might be a ganja smuggling link to Siba’s murder.