The Nilagiri Police on Friday recovered the bodies of two friends who had been missing for the last couple of days and detained six persons in this connection. The deceased have been identified as Bhawani Rout and Manoranjan Mahapatra. The police have detained Bhawani's elder brother, his sister-in-law and four supari killers.
Locals said Bhawani and his brother had been at loggerheads over a piece of land. The sibling duo was in a bitter relationship over the land dispute. So, it is suspected that Bhawani’s brother and sister-in-law hired contract killers from Balasore to kill the former.
However, both Bhawani and Manoranjan were best friends and spent most of their time together. On the fateful day, the two friends had been out of the village on a motorbike. Since then the two had mysteriously gone missing. On Thursday, their bike and blood-stained slippers were recovered.
On Friday, their bodies were fished out of a lake near the village. Police detained the suspects and launched a probe into the incident.
“We suspect the involvement of the family members of one of the deceased. The two deceased were best friends. Since the accused persons had planned to kill Bhawani, the murder of Manoranjan is suspected to be a collateral damage,” alleged a local.
Hemant Mahapatra, brother of the deceased Manoranjan Mahapatra told OTV, “Mano had gone out with his best friend Bhawani Rout. So, we suspect Bhawani’s brother had hired supari killers to kill his brother and they killed both of them. The two brothers had a land dispute which is the main reason behind the supari killing. My brother was with Bhawani and so they killed him too.”
“We came to know that the supari was fixed at Rs 2 lakh. The accused had given Rs 1.6 lakh in advance and the rest amount was to be paid after the killing,” he added.