Dhanbad, Nov. 18: The district court has transferred a case regarding the murder of Orissa police sub-inspector Mamata Mohanty and her sister’s sister-in-law Vijaya Singh to Rourkela district court. The Orissa police had requested Dhanbad chief judicial magistrate last Thursday to transfer the case.

On June 9, the decomposed bodies of the victims were recovered from an abandoned BCCL magazine house near Parasia forest under Putki police station in Dhanbad district. In the absence of proper clues, the district police cremated their bodies.

However, Rourkela police superintendent Sandip Panda identified them a couple of weeks later on the basis of photographs and their blood-soaked clothes.

Evidence collected by Orissa police suggests that Mamata Mohanty was involved in an affair with colleague Pradip Seth, who was married with two children. Mamata was posted at Rourkela Sector IX police station and Seth worked in Rourkela police superintendent’s office.

Mamata was due to get married to a Cuttack-based lawyer on June 12, which was strongly opposed by Seth. But Mamata wanted Seth to divorce his wife first if he was serious about marrying her. Seth was not ready for this.

On June 7, Seth took Mamata and Vijaya home for dinner after which he offered to drop them home in his car. Instead of taking them home, he drove towards Kurla Post saying he needed to meet a friend immediately and would drop them home thereafter.

When Seth started heading towards Simdega, Mamata became suspicious and opposed his moves. Seth took out his service revolver and asked her to remain quiet. But, Mamata did not give up. She caught hold of the revolver and asked Vijaya sitting on the back seat to help her. At this, Vijaya too swung into action.

In the scuffle, the revolver was fired off by accident and the bullet hit Seth’s leg. Though the revolver fell off his hand, Seth picked it up and shot dead Vijaya and Mamata.

That night he drove through forest areas of Jharkhand. The next day, he hid his car in the forest and kept a vigil on the main road. He purchased a sharp weapon from a labourer and after sunset, headed towards Dhanbad.

On reaching Parasia forests under Putki police station, he tried to bury the bodies. On being spotted by a truck-driver, Seth dumped the bodies in an abandoned BCCL magazine house and fled towards Jamshedpur.

On reaching Azadnagar locality in Jamshedpur, he sprinkled petrol on his car and pushed it into a ditch after setting it on fire. He then fled to Sambalpur and started selling cosmetics.

In the meantime, Mamata’s brother lodged a complaint with the police in which Seth was made the named accused.

A red alert was sounded all over Orissa and the Rourkela police superintendent approached his counterparts posted in the districts of adjoining states.

One day, he received a telephone from a colleague in Jharkhand who quoted newspaper reports that bodies of two unidentified women had been found in Dhanbad. Panda immediately got in touch with Dhanbad police superintendent Murarilal Meena and rushed in some of his subordinates to conduct preliminary investigation.