Raigarh/Bhubaneswar: In a major development in connection with the murder of a 32-year-old woman and her daughter in 2016, the Chhattisgarh police on Friday revealed that former MLA and BJD leader Anup Sai was the prime accused in the case and he had confessed to the crime.
In a crowded press conference, Raigarh superintendent of police (SP) Santosh Kumar said that Anup had an “illicit affair” with the victim Kalpana Das after she got divorced from her husband in the year 2005. Both of them started living together along with Kalpana’s daughter Pravati Das from 2011 to 2016 in a flat bought by Anup in Sundarpada area of Bhubaneswar.
“While staying together for years, the victim asked Anup to marry her but he kept dodging her request citing that he was already married. Later, he plotted to kill her. On May 7, 2016, he used a blunt weapon to kill both and later vehicle made to run over the victims,” said Raigarh SP.
During the investigation, as many as 700 people were interrogated across six states including Odisha, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, revealed the SP. He added that the needle of suspicion turned towards Anup while the mobile number of Kalpana was being traced.
“It was tough challenge for us to crack the case. Firstly, the accused had brought the victims to Raigarh in the pretext of marrying Kalpana at the local Sai temple here. However, in the evening on May 7 he took them to a forested area where he attacked them with blunt objects. After they collapsed, he crushed them under the wheels of Mahindra Bolero and fled the place with his driver. The bodies were recognized a year after police constable, who is a relative of the victims, identified them seeing their pictures pasted in Brajarajnagar police stations. Once identification was done, we followed Anup Sai’s activities for months as Kalapana’s mobile phone call details showed she was in touch with him till the last minutes,” said the SP.
The top cop said the police would go for narco-analysis of the accused. He also informed that special teams were formed to arrest driver of the vehicle who helped in execution of the murder plots.
Meanwhile, BJD president and Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik expelled Sai from the party.
