JAJPUR: Two days after the decomposed body of a contractual worker of the Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd (NINL) plant in Kalinga Nagar was found buried on the plant premises, police on Sunday arrested four of his coworkers for allegedly murdering him following rift over sharing booty.
The murder was the fallout of the victim seeking his share in proceeds from theft of oil from the plant.
The accused - Tarini Prasad Mohanty, Jagdish Mohanta, Padmalochan Mohanta and Alok Patra too are contractual workers and employed at the plant by a vendor Satyam Enterprises. They worked along with the victim Silu Pradhan at the plant. Police said the accused and the victim shared the booty from theft of oil that had been going on at the steel plant for quite some time.
“Everything was going well as the booty was being equally distributed among all of them. The problem arose when Silu who was absent from the plant for around three weeks joined duty on October 30 and demanded his share of income from the oil theft. A tussle arose among Silu and the accused following which the latter killed him,” said Kalinga Nagar IIC Prakash Chandra Sahoo.
After killing Silu, the accused buried his body by digging a pit near the batching unit of the NINL plant the same night.
“Silu’s body was found naked with his hands and legs tied with a rope,” the IIC said.
The accused were arrested under relevant sections of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). They were produced in a local court and later remanded in judicial custody after their bail pleas were rejected, police said.
Silu worked as a machine helper in the batching unit of the plant. A resident of Kulunigoda village within Gondia police limits of Dhenkanal district, the 22-year-old was missing from the plant for the last four days. He was last seen entering the plant on October 30 but there was no proof of his exit.
Irked over his unexplained absence, residents of Kulunigoda village blocked the main gate of the plant seeking Silu’s physical appearance following which police started a probe into the matter. His decomposed body was later retrieved from under the batching unit of the NINL in the presence of local magistrate, company officials and his family members.