Three-time MLA and senior BJD leader Anup Sai was arrested on Thursday by the Chhattisgarh police for alleged involvement in a double murder case of a woman and her minor daughter in a village of the neighbouring state almost three years ago.
Sai, chairperson of Odisha’s State Warehousing Corporation, was arrested under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of the evidence) of the Indian Penal Code by Chakradharnagar police in the case of twin murders of Kalpana Das (32) and her daughter Pravati Das(14) in April 2016 in a Chhatisgarh village bordering Odisha.
“We arrested him after sustained interrogation. During our investigation we found that he was in a live-in relationship for a long time with a divorcee. The accused even used to blackmail her. We have substantial evidence and call detail records to support our claim of his hand behind the incident. The acccused also destroyed lot of evidence. We will produce him before a local court tomorrow,” said Raigarh SP Santosh Kumar Singh. Pravati Das was Kalpana’s daughter from her first marriage.
A team of Chhattisgarh police picked up the 59-year-old Sai from his residence in Jharsuguda late Wednesday night and took him to Chakradharnagar police station, where he was interrogated for hours. Police said during the interrogation, Sai admitted to his role in the murder. However, police are yet to find the murder weapon.
Police sources said the mother-daughter duo were found murdered in a forest near Rampur village bordering Jharsuguda. The bodies had allegedly been rolled under a vehicle to make it look like an accident. Sai’s role came to the fore during an investigation by the Chhattisgarh CID. Sai avoided joining the probe and even attempted to derail it.
Soon after his arrest, the Biju Janata Dal expelled Sai from the party and removed him from the post of chairman of State Warehousing Corporation. Last year, Sai was the chairman of the campaign committee for Bijepur assembly constituency, from where Naveen Patnaik contested the polls.
