Bhubaneswar, Jan. 22: Police today arrested a security guard and two other persons for killing an employee of a city-based software company.

The security guard, Biswakalyan Puspapalak, who is the main accused in the case, had romantic inclinations towards the wife of the victim, Gadadhar Behera, 35.

Puspapalak killed Gadadhar on the night of January 17 in the software company’s office at the CRP Square. He then carried Gadadhar’s body with the help of two accomplices to his native village Madhava at Niali in Cuttack, around 50 kilometres away from Bhubaneswar, and buried it in a 9-feet deep ditch at the backyard of his house.

A special squad of city police, along with officials of Nayapalli police station and the accused, removed the body wrapped in polythene bag from the back yard of his house in the presence of a magistrate. Both the hands and legs of the deceased were tied.

The incident had took place on late night of January 17, when the security guard had hit Gadadhar on his head using a iron rod and then attacked him with a dagger. “Later the accused took the help of two other persons — Balaram Padhy and Chabi Padhy — to take his body to Madhava in a car. Both Balaram and Chabi are natives of Madhava village,” said a senior police officer.

Behera, a native of Balianta on city outskirts, used to stay in the office, while his wife used to visit the office a number of times. Gadadhar used to work as an office assistant in the office.

Police suspected Puspapalak’s romantic inclinations towards Gadadhar’s wife behind the murder.

“Preliminary investigations revealed that the accused had proposed Gadadhar’s wife twice and when she refused, he had planned to kill Gadadhar,” said deputy superintendent of police Nitinjeet Singh.

The wife of the deceased, who is a native of Ganjam, had lodged a missing report with the Nayapalli police station after she failed to reach him over telephone.

“He was supposed to visit his in laws’ residence in Ganjam. But, several calls to his mobile phone went unanswered and later the phone became ‘unreachable’. We then registered a missing complaint with the police,” said Muralidhar Behera, younger bother of the deceased.

During their investigation, the police traced the mobile numbers of both the deceased and accused at Madhava village and later questioned Puspapalak, who confessed to committing the crime.

The police have also seized the iron rod and dagger used in the crime, along with the car that was used.