A female teacher whose half-burnt body was exhumed from a school playground was allegedly murdered by the president of the educational institution's managing committee, authorities said.
The partially-charred body of the 26-year-old teacher, who has not been named by the police, was found in an under-construction stadium of a private school at the Kalahandi district of Odisha, India on Tuesday, Oct.19.
Officials familiar with the matter said the woman had been reported missing 11 days ago.
A search was underway for her when on Tuesday officers were alerted about a woman’s body found buried in the school premises. Her half burnt and partly decomposed body was exhumed from 10 feet under the playground, police said.
According to the police, the now-deceased teacher had accused the president of the school’s managing committee, Gobind Sahu of running a sex racket in the school premises and had reportedly threatened to expose his extra-marital affairs, the officials added.
The police were probing Sahu on the sex racket charges when they received an anonymous tip about the buried body. The deceased teacher’s family identified the body with the help of the items found at the scene, the officials said.
"As the body is partially burnt, it would be sent for DNA testing," Bolangir deputy superintendent of police Bata Krushna Mishra said.
A preliminary investigation revealed that on Oct. 8, the teacher left her home to meet Sahu and never returned. Worried family members tried contacting her on her cellphone but it was switched off, police said.
The next day, her family contacted Sahu who reportedly told them that she is fine and not to worry about her whereabouts, the officials added.
However, the woman’s father got suspicious of Sahu’s replies after which he approached the police and filed a missing person’s report. He alleged that Sahu was running a sex racket in the school and that he murdered his daughter as she had threatened to "expose his deeds".
During a further probe, investigators learned that the accused killed the teacher in his car on Oct.8.
The investigators concluded this with the help of oral, material, technical and scientific evidences, accounts of the eyewitness, and confessional statements of the accused, DIG of northern range Deepak Kumar told a press conference.
"The prime accused buried the teacher's body in the school playground before being half burnt in the darkness. The pit for hiding the body was dug earlier and filled with mud early on October 9," Kumar told reporters.
"He (the prime accused) took revenge".
"It could be a case of strangulation. Immediately after killing her, the accused took her to the school campus where a pit was already dug. He dumped the body and burnt some rubber tires and cardboards before filling the pit with mud," the DIG said.
The school president was arrested from a sugarcane field on Tuesday afternoon and was produced before the court of the judicial magistrate on Wednesday.
He was remanded to five days in police custody, the Hindustan Times reported.
"The case will be put for fast track trial," the DIG added.
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