Bhubaneswar, Dec 28: In a turn of events, two persons have been arrested for allegedly killing a man who allegedly orchestrated a fake kidnapping plot to extort a hefty ransom in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district, a senior official revealed on Friday.
The accused persons have been identified as Asish Singh (24) and Karama Singh (22), residents of Baripada Sadar police station area in the district.
As per reports, the deceased, identified as Chandan Kumar Swain was a resident of Marsaghai in Kendrapara district, used to work as a supervisor at the garment factory of his paternal uncle Banshidhar Swain located in Bengaluru since the last three years. He had quit the job on December 17, 2024 owing to some disagreement with his uncle and returned back to Bhubaneswar.
Owing to financial difficulties, Chandan hatched a plan along with the accused Ashis, whom he had befriended during his stay in Bengaluru, to stage his own kidnapping and extort Rs 50 lakh from his uncle as ransom.
However, disagreements arose between the two when Chandan insisted on taking the majority share of the ransom for conceptualizing the plan. Displeased with this, Ashis planned to kill Chandan and take the entire amount himself.
Chandan traveled to Mayurbhanj on December 21 where Ashis lured him to the embankment of the Budhabalanga River in the village of Gumudi, near Ashis’s hometown and killed him by slitting his throat.
Therafter, Ashis partially burned Chandan’s body with Karama's assistance and buried it in the embankment. He also disposed of the murder weapon in the river.
Ashis then returned to Bhubaneswar and used Chandan’s mobile SIM card to call Banshidhar’s son Deepak Swain by posing as the kidnapper. He claimed to have kidnapped both Chandan and himself and demanded Rs 50 lakh as ransom to release them.
On December 25, a relative of Chandan filed a kidnapping complaint against an unknown person at Kharavel Nagar Police Station in Bhubaneswar.
The case took a turn the following day when locals in the village of Gumudi discovered Chandan’s hand protruding from the sand and alerted the police.
Upon getting the information, police rushed to the spot and exhumed the body. Police then swung into action and with the help of call detail records and other leads, they identified and nabbed Ashis and Karama.
