Raigharh/Bhubaneswar: The arrest of ex-MLA Anup Sai by Chhattisgarh Police in connection with the sensational 2016 double murder case has created ripples across the State. However, for the cops, it involved a lot of groundwork to zero in on Sai who had allegedly executed the crime with precision.Addressing a presser, Raigarh SP, Santosh Kumar Singh today revealed that Sai along with his driver Burman Toppo had killed Kalpana Das and her daughter with a blunt iron-rod like object and disposed their bodies. The duo made all attempts to ensure that the bodies could not be identified by crushing them under an SUV multiple times.
Initially, Raigarh Police began investigations suspecting it to be a case of an accident. During verification, the cops stumbled upon some injury marks and from the post mortem it was established that the victims- Kalpana and her daughter were first killed and then their bodies were crushed under a vehicle.
“We got a breakthrough in establishing the identity of the woman with the help of a constable from Odisha who happens to a relative of the deceased. Initially, we had formed teams to identify the victims by sending them to 6 different States including Odisha, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal,” said Singh.
Singh further revealed that after establishing the identity of the deceased woman and with the help of the constable, efforts were subsequently made to verify the call records of her mobile phone.
Preliminary probe indicated towards the involvement of Anup Sai and notices were first served to him in 2016.
Sai did not cooperate in the probe and didn’t appear before the cops using his political influence. Later, we started tracking the movement of Sai for nearly six months and finally rounded him two days back, Singh informed adding that the accused initially did not recognise the woman but later confessed.
Singh said Sai used a particular mobile phone number to talk and remain in touch with Kalpana. “We have got credible information from call details how Sai along with Kalpana and her daughter left Bhubaneswar, where they stayed and how long they were there and then took U-turn,” he added.
Murder Motive:
Raigarh Police claimed that the deceased Kalpana Das was married to one Sunil Srivastav. After divorce, Kalpana was staying with ex-MLA Anup Sai in a three-storeyed building in Bhubaneswar from 2011 to 2016. Both Sai and Kalpana visited several places including Delhi, Goa, and Vizag together.
Kalpana was a practicing law and had started pressurising Sai for marriage which the latter did not want.
After realising that Kalpana might create trouble, Sai planned to eliminate her. A day before the murder, Sai took Kalpana and her daughter to the neighbouring State on the pretext of marrying her in a temple.
Later, Sai along with his driver killed them near Hamirpur forest. Though Sai only wanted to kill Kalpana, later he killed her daughter realising that he could be exposed.
Prasanta Patnaik