Police on Monday took Jhasaketan Sahu, prime accused in the murder of four persons of Kushakila and Kukurpeta villages, on a three-day remand for interrogation.
Police would try to get the details of the murder of two cousin brothers — Jogeswar Sahu and Hiranakhya Sahu of Kushakila under the Jarpada Police Station and take the prime accused to the place where he had buried them after pushing them into a pit.
Police would also conduct investigation into the double murder of Abala Gadnayak and her nephew Kumuda Sahu of Kukurpeta village under the Chhendipada police limits who were murdered and buried by Jhasaketan in May last year.
Jhasaketan, who was arrested on February 10, has already admitted that he had killed Jogeswar (35) and Hiranakhya (34) on February 4 night and buried them. Jogeswar was the son of former sarpanch Rajkishore Sahu and Hiranakhya his cousin, police said.
The accused, during interrogation, had said revenge over monetary issues was the motive behind the murder.
Rajkishore had sold seven acres of land to Jhasaketan. later, on scrutiny, it was found that about 2.9 acres of the sold land had already been gifted to an institute. Jhasaketan asked Rajkishore to arrange for 2.9 acres of land elsewhere or return the total amount of Rs 35 lakh. But neither Rajkishore nor his family responded to his demand.
On February 4 night, Jhasaketan called the two brothers to a site near the village on the pretext of discussing the issue. There he hit Jogeswar on the head with a shovel and threw him into the pit he had dug up earlier. When Hiranakhya came to the site, Jhasaketan killed him in a similar manner and threw him into the well.
Two days after his arrest, the prime accused told the police that he had murdered two more persons Abala and Kumuda of Kukurpeta in a similar manner last year and buried them a few meters away from the place where he had buried Jogeswar and Hiranakhya.
Jhasaketan had borrowed around Rs2 lakh from the aunt-nephew duo a few years ago. Asked to repay the money along with interest, he flatly refused to do so. After an altercation with Kumuda, Jhasaketan planned to eliminate the duo to escape their constant badgering, police said.