Jajpur: Police on Thursday claimed to have unraveled the mystery behind the death of 21-year-old Ramadevi University student Jharaphula Nayak with the arrest of the third accused in the case.
Shakti Swain, an associate of prime accused Rakesh Swain (Jharaphula’s male friend) was nabbed yesterday during a joint raid of Commissionerate Police and Jajpur Police in Bhubaneswar, informed Jajpur SP Rahul PR.
Investigation revealed that Rakesh had borrowed money from Jharaphula at various times. A week prior to the murder, Jharaphula was insisting on Rakesh to return the money.
On January 26, Jharaphula had visited Bhubaneswar to attend a birthday celebration where she again asked Rakesh to return the borrowed amount and threatened that she would visit his house and demand the money from his parents.
Vexed over it, Rakesh planned to murder Jharaphula. On January 26, he took Jharaphula to a hotel on the pretext of returning the money. There he forced her to drink liquor and subsequently smothered her to death, which has been revealed in her post-mortem report.
Following it, Rakesh with help of Shakti took Jharaphula’s body on a scooter from Bhubaneswar to Jajpur on January 27 and dumped it on the roadside at Mulapala in Kuakhia.
Shakti will be forwarded to court today and the police will seek his remand for further interrogation. The case is in its final stage and the charge sheet will be submitted soon, said the SP.
