Police on Monday arrested three persons in connection with the murder of a man, whose body was found stuffed into a suitcase in forest under the Nachuni police station in Khordha district on Sunday.
The deceased was identified as Manoranjan Mohapatra (32), a resident of Lakhapada village under the Ranpur police station in Nayagarh district.
The arrested accused confessed to the crime during interrogation by police. Later, police took the three accused to the spot and recreated the crime scene.
“It was a preplanned murder by his wife, one of his cousins and an associate. They bought a suitcase, strangulated Manoranjan to death, stuffed the body in it and dumped it in the forest,” said Khordha distrcit SP Siddharth Kataria.
As per primary investigation, the motive behind killing the youth was torture. The accused revealed that the youth was an alcoholic and some criminal cases are pending against him. He used to frequently torture his wife following which she got fed up hatched a conspiracy to eliminate him, Kataria added.
Sources said the cops zeroed down on the accused after scrutinising the CCTV shop from which the accused has purchased the suitcase in Tangi.
According to reports, locals, who had gone to the forest for collecting firewood, spotted a blue suitcase. They informed the local police station, following which police reached the spot and found the man’s body in the suitcase.
The preliminary investigation suggested that the man was strangled to death. During the investigation, police arrested his wife and two others.