: The Cuttack district police on Sunday arrested three persons of a family in connection with the alleged murder of a farmer, who had reportedly sought information from the district agriculture office under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
Krupasindhu Sahoo (40), a farmer of Niali block, about 40 km from Cuttack, had sought information on fund distribution in the block towards line sowing of paddy, fertilizer and seed.
Soon after he made the RTI application, Krupasindhu reportedly received threatening phone calls and went missing on January 26 evening while he had gone to the local market.
Although, a missing report was made in the local police station by Krupasindhu’s wife, the police failed to trace him even as his motorcycle was recovered the next day from a deserted place near the market.
The woman subsequently lodged a police complaint alleging that her husband had been kidnapped
On Saturday, Krupasindhu’s wife received two phone calls asking her to pay money in exchange of Krupasindhu’s missing mobile phone and his motorcycle keys. Tracking the calls, the police reached the house of Kartik Pani of nearby Krushnaprasadpur village.
Not finding Kartik home, the police picked up his mother, sister and a nephew of Kartik from another place. Based on their statements, the police retrieved the decomposed body of Krupasindhu from the nearby riverbed and sent it for post-mortem.
“All the three persons detained in this connection were arrested on Sunday and sent to court,” said the district SP Gurudas Kundu on Sunday.
