By the time the Odisha Police dug up the body of missing woman constable Subhamitra Sahoo from a forest in Keonjhar Wednesday, they were allegedly certain of two things: that she had married secretly, and that she was looking to escape the marriage “out of frustration”. It was these that pointed the needle of suspicion towards the husband – police constable Deepak Rout.
On Wednesday evening, police arrested 39-year-old Rout for allegedly murdering 25-year-old Sahoo, whom he had secretly married last year. Sahoo had gone missing on September 6, and the police, which began its probe on the back of a complaint by Sahoo’s mother, found that she had been allegedly strangled and buried in the forest some 180 km from state capital Bhubaneswar.
A native of Paradip, Sahoo, who was posted at the Bhubaneswar traffic deputy commissioner of police, was allegedly involved in a money dispute with Rout over a planned wedding ceremony.
“According to the evidence that emerged during investigation and based on the information we got during questioning, we have reached to the conclusion that Deepak [Rout] might have killed Sahoo on September 6 and buried her body in a jungle some 180 km from Bhubaneswar,” Police Commissioner S Dev Datta Singh said.
According to the police, there was “strong indication” that the couple had quarrelled over money.
“Rout had borrowed Rs 10 lakh from Sahoo. Though we got some information about him returning some money to her, the investigation is on to find out exactly how much he returned. But the victim had been demanding more money for the wedding function. They had quarrelled over this earlier too,” Singh said.
In addition, police are also investigating if Rout had murdered Sahoo for a life insurance of Rs 1 crore.
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It was during investigation that the police allegedly found that Rout and Sahoo had secretly married in a court in July last year. Then, by tracking Sahoo’s phone, police allegedly found out that she had travelled to Mathura, Varanasi and Puri for pilgrimage. A look at her call records also indicated that she had expressed a desire to “escape somewhere”.
With this information, the police tried unsuccessfully to look for her at various mutts in the three cities.
As the search for the missing woman constable continued, meanwhile, Rout was brought in for questioning.
“We also launched a parallel probe into the activities of Deepak and analysed his movement, people he met recently and their topic of discussions. After analysing call records, questioning various people and seeing contradictions in his statements, we reached at the conclusion that Deepak killed Sahoo,” Police Commissioner S Dev Datta Singh said.
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According to the police, Rout strangled Sahoo in their car on September 6 and buried her in the forest. On Wednesday morning, Rout had been taken to the forest to “recreate” the crime, police sources said, adding that investigation was ongoing to see if others were involved in disposing of the body.
