Jajpur/Kalinganagar: A day after the arrest of four employees of a consultancy agency in connection with the murder of a labourer inside the plant premises of Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd (NINL) at Kalinganagar in Jajpur district, police arrested another person, Sunday. The fifth accused has been identified as Manas Rout, 26, a native of Joranda locality in Dhenkanal district. He will be produced in the court, Monday. Earlier, police had arrested four employees of Satyam Enterprises for their alleged involvement in the murder.
The accused were identified as operator Jagdish Mohanta of Sansailo village, supervisor Tarini Prasad Mohanta of Joranda village, driver Padmalochan Mohanta and accountant Alok Patra of Harichandanpur area. They were produced in court after their arrest, Saturday. Kalinganagar police registered a case and launched an investigation. All five of them have been accused in the alleged murder of Silu Pradhan, 22, over sharing of illegal money earned through various irregularities in the plant, police said. Sources said that Satyam Enterprises was managing the operations of NINL plant. Some employees were earning huge amounts by illegally selling various materials including oil, chips and cement outside. The accused and the victim had a fight two to three days before the murder over distribution of the booty following which the five connived to get rid of Silu.
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Accordingly, they switched on a machine when Silu was verifying it. Caught unawares, Silu was sucked in by the machine and was crushed to death.
Later, the accused allegedly dug up a pit inside the plant premises and buried the body by mixing a chemical and covering it with a polythene sheet. They also dumped his mobile phone at Panikoili to evade police action. However, after being detained they confessed to their crime during interrogation, Kalinganagar Additional SP Silverious Toppo said.