March 11: Faced with criticism over their inability to arrest the assailants behind nine murders in the past two weeks, city police today claimed that blind faith, extra-marital affairs and drug abuse led to three of the murders, including the beheading of a person.

The police arrested four persons in connection with the three cases, while they were yet to crack six other murders.

The senior superintendent of police (city), Apurba Jibon Baruah, said two persons were arrested — Siron Boro and Binseswar Deori — prime accused in the murder of Mujibar Rahman, whose severed head was found in front of the gate of Kamakhya temple on March 2.

“During investigation it had come to light that Rahman was killed by the two at Lokhra hills, as he failed to arrange bones of bon manuh (primitive man), for which he had taken money from some Khasi people in Meghalaya. They were told that some Khasi people believe that bones of a bon manuh can bring good luck. They had struck a deal of Rs 1.5 crore for the supply of bones. As Rahman could not supply the bones, the two had an argument with him and later killed him. They later kept his severed head in front of the temple gate to make it look like human sacrifice,” Baruah said.

The police today found the body of Rahman on the Lokhra hills and said they were looking for Hakimuddin, another accused in the case, who was absconding.

Rahman was a resident of Athkuria village in Darrang district.

Baruah said Rahman had a criminal background and was earlier arrested twice by the police in Mangaldoi in connection with two cases — one on charges of his involvement in fake currency supply and another in supply of fake gold.

“Our investigation is on and we are trying to identify the group in Khasi hills which had asked Rahman to provide the bones in lieu of the huge amount of money,” Baruah said.

In the second case, the police arrested Anita Pegu, wife of Ranjan Pegu, whose body was found inside a water tank in the city’s Srinagar area on March 5.

“Our investigation revealed that Anita had an extra-marital affair with another person Pobin Barman and the duo killed Ranjan and dumped his body in the water tank. We are looking for Barman, who is a resident of Sonitpur district,” Baruah said.

The SSP said they arrested Rekibuddin Ahmed who was involved in the murder of a madarsa student, Ruhul Amin, on March 8 at Hatigaon.

“Our probe has revealed that Amin was a drug addict and he was killed following some conflicts. We recovered six tubes of adhesives from his pocket,” Baruah said.

Residents at Hatigaon today attacked the house of Sohrab Ali, where Amin’s body was found.

The city reported another murder today as the body of a labourer, Rakesh Ram, was found with injury marks inside B.G. Yard at Bamunimaidam.

The body of Ram was found close to Government Railway Police station at Bamunimaidam and the police said it was a murder case and they were looking for those behind the crime.