Woman among 3 held for realtors murder

BHUBANESWAR: Dilip Patnaik, a realtor, whose body was found on the railway tracks in the City last month was allegedly murdered. The Government Railway Police (GRP), which had started investigation into it as a case of suicide, has arrested three persons, including a woman. The woman, Sakina Bibi, police say is the principal accused in the case whereas Shakabar Khan and Sk Petla, the two others, carried out the heinous crime. A fourth accomplice Sk Ansari is still at large. Patnaik’s body, cut into two by a train, was found by the tracks in Sarakantara area of the City on March 10. Initially, it appeared to be a case of suicide. However, the postmortem report changed the nature of investigation by the police, GRP inspector-in-charge Smruti Ranjan Kar said.  Once police had evidence that Patnaik had died before his body was dumped on the railway tracks, it went back to the call details of the builder’s mobile phone and traced the links with Sakina. Going by the investigation, Sakina had asked Patnaik to come over to her Jadupur house on March 9 evening. When he reached there, Shakabar, Petla and Ansari were also there. They had a heated exchange of words after which Patnaik was allegedly hit on the head. When he was struggling with pain, they reportedly used Sakina’s ‘dupatta’ to strangulate him to death. Thereafter, using Ansari’s car, the three men dumped the body on the railway tracks so that it would appear as a case of suicide once a train passed over it. The motive behind the murder, however, remained a little complicated. Sakina’s version to police was that she allegedly had a relationship with Patnaik who had taken photographs and captured videos of her in compromising positions. When she disclosed the matter before Shakabar, he wanted to settle the issue. The GRP, however, believes that there could be more to it than meets the eye. Kar said investigation is still open and more facts could come to light soon.