Nuapada, Sept. 17: Nuapada police have arrested four persons, including a college teacher, in connection with the murder of a contractor more than a year ago.

The arrested have been identified as history teacher of Sinapali College Braja Mohan Dhakad, his brother and husband of former chairperson of Sinapali block Prafulla Dhakad, former panchayat samiti member of Bharuamunda Subhas Agrawal and one Abdul Irfan. The four accused had shot the contractor Sumanta Patra of Phulchi village and then burnt the body and his motorbike. They had even successfully diverted the police attention as a few Maoist posters were found at the spot of incident.

The police said the four confessed to the crime.

Sumanta was taking up various development works in Nangalbord and Ghatmal area of Sinapali block. In 2007, Prafulla Dhakad’s wife Mamata Dhakad was elected as chairperson of the Sinapali block. After that, Prafulla had wanted to bag all contract works of the area. This resulted in a dispute between the two.

At that time, the area was known to be a Maoist stronghold. The accused took advantage of the situation by killing the contractor and leaving some Maoists poster at the spot.

Inspector in charge of Sinapali police station Malaya Kishore Naik said the cops had arrested one of the accused Ujjal Majhi a few days after the incident.

“The accused persons tried to mislead the police by creating an impression of it being a handiwork of the Maoists. They, however, admitted to have taken the rebels’ help to commit the crime,” Naik said.