Nalin Mishra with his wife in a picture from the family album.

Ranchi, April 4: Police today continued to look for the two students who they believe planned the murder of Jharkhand Today magazine editor Nalin Mishra even as they formed a three-member task force to probe the killing.

The team is made up of Hatia DSP Sambhu Thakur, Doranda police station officer-in-charge Deepak Ambasta and his Lower Bazaar counterpart Naresh Prasad Singh. Mishra?s decomposed body was recovered from the residence of a former circle officer near the Dibdih railway crossing last evening. The editor had been missing since March 28, when he left his home near Purulia Road in the evening.

The police investigations received a jolt today when St Xavier?s College principal Nicolas Tete claimed that the girl whom the police suspect was not a student of his college.

The police had said Mishra was of late quite friendly with a girl studying English in the college. The police officials are convinced that it was the girl who plotted with her ?foster? brother and murdered Mishra.

?The police came today and scanned the register of the entire English department. But her name was not there. The girl is not a student of this college,? Tete said. Ranchi SSP R.K Mallick said the matter was indeed surprising. ?We work according to the information we get. They are not wrong and are based on facts. It was from one of Mishra?s relatives that we came to know about the girl. Maybe she is from a different department. It is also possible that the girl had hidden her real name and identity from Mishra,? he said.

Prior to launching Jharkhand Today, Mishra had worked for 16 years in a local vernacular daily. In 2001, he started Jharkhand Today in partnership with Congress leader Roshanlal Bhatia.

Bhatia broke off the partnership and in April 2005, Mishra started a company called Jharkhand Today Private Limited. From February to April 2005, Mishra came up with the Jharkhand Today evening edition in addition to the magazine. He turned the magazine into a fortnightly. After March, the evening edition had to be closed down due to lack of financiers. The magazine is still going strong,? sources said.

The police have found out that Mishra was deep in debt, but don?t think that was the reason for his getting killed. ?We have come to know that he had taken a lot of money from many people. But this cannot be the reason of his murder as it won?t be possible to get back the amount from a dead person. The motive of the murder is still unclear,? said another official.