Two held for murder of MBA student in Odisha village

Anonymous letter helps police recover body, solve case

An anonymous letter and guilty conscience of one of the two accused led the police solve a murder case of a 24-year-old MBA student who was missing from Bhogara village in Odisha’s Ganjam district since August 28.

The police have arrested Pravanjan Tripathy, the business partner of the victim, Jitendra Pradhan, and Bansidhar Gouda, who allegedly assisted Tripathy in disposing of Pradhan's body and motorbike.

The arrests were made following the discovery of the body and the motorbike earlier this week. The Bhanjanagar Sub-Divisional Police Officer received an anonymous letter hinting at the murder and the names of the persons allegedly involved in the crime.

A police team searched for the body and the bike based of the hints given in the letter and found the charred remains of the vehicle buried inside Kiriamba forest on September 17. A day later, the decomposed body of Pradhan was unearthed from a waterbody meant for wild elephants inside the same jungle.

On Wednesday, the police arrested the two accused and during interrogation, Gouda allegedly confessed to helping Tripathy in disposing of the body.

According to sources, Gouda had earlier confessed about the murder and the disposal of the body before some inhabitants of Bhogara. It is suspected that he only sent the anonymous letter to the police.

Dispute over money

Financial dispute between the deceased and Tripathy is suspected to be the reason behind the murder. The two had started a poultry farm together at Bhogara. According to sources, As Pradhan was studying in Bhubaneswar, Tripathy used to manage the farm. The victim is said to have invested ₹2 lakh in the farm.

Pradhan had come to Bhogara on August 26 and was scheduled to return to Bhubaneswar on August 28. On the day he went missing he had told his mother that he would return home after collecting money from Tripathy. According to the police investigation, Tripathy and Pradhan allegedly consumed liquor inside Kiriamba jungle on August 28. When the victim got too drunk, Tripathy allegedly hacked him to death. On August 29, Tripathy, with help of Gouda, allegedly disposed of the body and the bike.