2 held for killing fake kidnap mastermind

Bhubaneswar: The Mayurbhanj Police arrested two persons on the charge of killing the mastermind of a fake kidnap plot and aiming to grab the ransom amount, said a senior official on Friday. The accused were identified as Asish Singh (24) and Karama Singh (22) of Baripada Sadar police station area in Mayurbhanj district. Police sources said the deceased, identified as Chandan Kumar Swain, was a resident of Marsaghai in Kendrapara district.

Chandan, who used to work as a supervisor in a garment factory of his paternal uncle Banshidhar Swain in Bengaluru for the last three years, quit his job on December 17 following some disagreement with his uncle and job dissatisfaction and came back to Bhubaneswar. Chandan, during his stay in Bengaluru, had befriended prime accused Ashis, who also worked in the same garment factory. As Chandan was badly in need of money, he hatched a plan, along with Ashis, to extract ransom of Rs 50 lakh from his uncle Banshidhar by staging a fake kidnap plot.

Meanwhile, Ashis got displeasedwith Chandan for insisting on taking the lion’s share of the Rs 50 lakh for being the mastermind and decided to take away the whole ransom amount by killing Chan-dan. On December 21, Chandan reached Mayurbhanj. Ashis killed Chandan by slitting his throat at the embankment of Budhabalanga river at Gumudi village.

Ashis, with the help of Karama, buried the half-burnt body of Chandan in the embankment and threw the knife in the river. Ashis later came to Bhubaneswar where he telephoned Deepak Swain (factory owner’s son) by using the deceased’s Mobile SIM and demanded Rs 50 lakh by pretending himself as Chandan’s kidnapper.

On December 25, a case was filed against an unknown kidnapper at Kharavel Nagar police station in Bhubaneswar following a complaint filed by Chandan’s relative. On December 26, some locals at Gumudi village spotted the deceased’s hand protruding out of the sand and informed the police. The police exhumed the body and started investigation. With the help of call detail records, police nabbed the accused duo.