NUAPADA: Chhattisgarh police on Monday arrested four persons including a juvenile for their alleged involvement in the murder of a 35-year-old pharmacy graduate of Nuapada, whose body was found in Komakhan area of the neighbouring state on May 8.
The accused are Parsuram Dansena (20), Ganpat Dansena (27), Saroj Dansena (24) and the juvenile, all of Nuapada. They reportedly abducted and murdered Manas Ranjan Tripathi of Shiv Shakti Nagar after their bid to collect ransom failed, said police.
Sources said Manas went missing on the evening of May 8 after he left on his motorcycle to visit Mahuabhata. Finding his mobile phone switched off, his family members became worried.
The next day, Nuapada police received a report from their Komakhan counterparts in Chhattisgarh about recovery of the body of an unidentified man near Kasekera-Tongopani village.
The man’s face, mouth and hands were wrapped in plastic tape, indicating that he was transported to the location by a vehicle.
After the body was identified to be that of Manas, postmortem confirmed death by suffocation, establishing it as a murder.
During investigation, police tracked down Parsuram from Mahuabhata. The accused was subjected to intense grilling following which he confessed to his crime and revealed the names of his associates involved in the murder.
Parsuram told police that they kidnapped Manas for ransom. The accused taped his mouth and hands, took him on a forest route towards Komakhan in a car and checked his bank balance on his mobile phone. Finding only Rs 9,000 in his account, they suffocated him to death and dumped his body in a field.
Police recovered the car used in the crime, Manas’ motorcycle and his medical bag besides the mobile phones of the accused.