Khurda: A youth has been arrested for allegedly murdering his close friend to get respite from repeated blackmail in Odisha’s Khurda district.
According to sources, the victim, identified as Ashutosh Mohapatra of Khamar Sahi under Banapur police limits in the district and the accused Ashirbad Pradhan of Dikhitpada village under the same police station were close friends since childhood. Both were students of Plus II student and their villagers are situated close to each other.
Ashirbad used to reveal his relationship with different girls and even shared their intimate photographs with Ashutosh. Taking advantage of it, Ashutosh started blackmailing his friend threatening to expose him by releasing the pictures in social media. In order to save himself, Ashirbad was also giving token amount of Rs 200 to 500 to Ashutosh to keep his mouth shut.
As Ashutosh’s blackmailing became a regular affair and the extortion amount went on increasing, Ashirbad hatched a conspiracy to eliminate him.
On January 23, while Ashutosh was returning home from tuition in the afternoon, Ashirbad invited him to have drink. They went to an isolated and incomplete house and started drinking alcohol. As Ashutosh got heavily drunk, Ashirbad locked him from outside and left the place.
Ashirbad called up Ashutosh’s father over phone and said he had kidnapped his son. He demanded Rs 5 lakh to release Ashutosh and returned to the place where they were having drink. He killed Ashutosh by strangulating him with a rope and dumped his body in a well at night.
Meanwhile, Ashutosh’s father filed a complaint about the kidnap of his son and the ransom call at Banapur police station. The police lodged a case and started investigation. Taking the phone number from which Ashutosh’s father had received the call, they identified Ashirbad and detained him on suspicion.
During questioning, Ashurbad spilled the beans. He admitted to have murdered his friend out of revenge, said Balugaon SDPO Manas Ranjan Barik.
Ashirbad told the media that he was frustrated by the blackmailing of Ashutosh for which he wanted to eliminate him. He used his bare hands and then a rope to strangulate Ashutosh, he added.
The SDPO said they recovered the body of Ashutosh from the well on Wednesday and sent it for post-mortem. They forwarded Ashirbad to court on Thursday.
