Nuapada: Police have cracked the sensational murder case of a woman dhaba owner in Nuapada district with the arrest of the victim’s son-in-law and three others.
Police said one of the arrested was a supari (contract) killer. The other two were the son-in-law’s elder brother and a friend. Police, however, didn’t disclose the identities of the accused “for the sake of the investigation”.
The victim, Basanti Meher, was shot dead by two supari killers at her dhaba at Duajhar village near Khariar on the night of July 31. The two killers were reportedly drunk at the time of the crime.
Earlier, Basanti’s family told police that the deceased had a dispute with her son-in-law, who is the prime accused. He used to regularly demand money from her and used to create a ruckus at her dhaba, they said.
SP (Nuapada) Pratyush Diwakar said the police investigation revealed that the accused along with his brother and friend had plotted the murder.
They hired two supari killers from Burla and offered them Rs 6 lakh to murder Basanti. The son-in-law paid Rs 2 lakh in advance and his friend gave them a country-made pistol. The trio was present near the crime scene and even helped the killers to escape.
The SP said on the fateful night, the two killers went to Basanti’s dhaba and ordered food. Sometime later, they picked up a quarrel with the woman and one of them shot her. They then ran away from the spot.
The eatery staff took Basanti to Khariar sub-divisional hospital, but the doctors declared her brought dead.
However, the crime unravelled when four of the five accused were arrested on Wednesday. Police also seized Rs 90,000 of the contract money, mobile phones and motorcycles from the accused.
Police have now launched a manhunt for the second supari killer.
