Alakananda Mishra

Cuttack, Sept. 10: Markatnagar police today said to have extracted vital information in connection with the murder of school teacher Alakananda Mishra.

A senior police officer requesting anonymity revealed that the key accused, Paresh Mohapatra, confessed to have had killed Alakananda as she was putting pressure on him to marry her.

The police said that during interrogation, Paresh admitted that he had killed Alakananada following a scuffle on July 29. Later, with the help of his associates, Paresh cremated her body at Kaliboda graveyard the same night.

“However, it is not clear whether Alakananda was pregnant at the time of her murder. But, she wanted the status of a wife and was putting pressure on Paresh to marry her. It is for this reason that Paresh killed her,” said the official.

Earlier, the police had said that Paresh killed Alakananda by strangulating her with a dupatta. Both Paresh and Alakananda had been in a relationship and staying together in a rented house at CDA Sector-X for the past one year.

Alakananda had married one Sunanda Mishra in 1998 and stayed with him till 2003 at various places, including Bhubaneswar. Later, they started living separately though there was never any formal divorce. In due course of time, she developed intimacy with Paresh, who had helped her get a job in Bhubaneswar. Again it was Paresh, who helped Alakananda to get another job in the same English medium school, where he worked as a principal, in Cuttack.

The police have also interrogated local leader J. Kamesh Rao and transport manager of the private English medium school Pranabas Roy. They had taken all the three accused on a three-day remand. All of them were sent to judicial custody today. The police have arrested 10 persons, including Paresh, in connection with the case.

Paresh’s laptop has also been recovered from the school premises yesterday night. The police have also found some articles, including a cell phone and a dupatta which probably belonged to Alaknanda, from Paresh’s office.

All the seized items, including the call details of the mobile phones of Paresh, Alakananda, Pranabas and Rao are being examined, the police said.