The Crime Branch police on Friday claimed to have cracked within three weeks the sensational September 21 quadruple murder of Astarang in Puri district in which a retired education officer, his wife and two minor daughters were brutally killed.
Crime Branch ADG BK Sharma told reporters here that a Muslim couple, Rahim Khan and Aisha Begum, have been identified as accused, who murdered retired DI of Schools Dinabandhu Mallick, his wife Nirmala and their two daughters aged 10 and four. "The motive behind the crime was for economic gain," he said.
Rahim Khan alias Himadri Das is a native of West Bengal and converted to Islam after marrying Aisha of Chhattisgarh. Both were residing at Raipur and were introduced to the deceased family through a relative, Sharma said, adding that the couple had previously visited the Mallick family on several occasions.
"On September 21 night, the couple had stayed with the deceased family after having dinner, and some time after midnight, they wiped out the entire family by slitting their throats with knives and decamped with valuables including jewellery and a motorcycle," the ADG said, adding that after abandoning
the motorcycle midway, the couple escaped to Raipur where they sold the ornaments and went to Bhopal.
"From Bhopal, the couple went to Silcher in Assam via Kharagpur by train and were hiding at a place called Hailapur bordering Bangladesh from where they were arrested with the help of local police," Sharma said, adding that the accused were brought here on by air via Kolkata.
"We have seized the mobile phone of Mallick from the accused including some incriminating documents. During the course of further interrogation, we will try to retrieve the weapons of offence and other stolen items from the accused," the ADG said, not ruling out more arrests in this connection.
At least four Crime Branch teams comprising 25 officers did an excellent job to detect one of the challenging cases in which the accused had left no clues and eliminated all eyewitnesses. Moreover, the accused from outside the State were also not known properly to the relatives of Mallick and other residents of the locality.