Director of Oxford Public School SB Mehta in police custody on Saturday. Picture by Prashant Mitra

Ranchi May 19: Director of Oxford Public School Shashi Bhushan Mehta was arrested today for the murder of his school’s warden, Suchitra Mishra (38), whose body was recovered beside a road near Gandhi Ashram in Dhurwa on the night of May 11.

Senior police superintendent Saket Kumar Singh claimed Mehta, along with six accomplices he hired for the job, killed the widow to get out of a relationship he was having with her for several years.

“Mehta took the extreme step to hide his illicit relationship with Suchitra with whom he had fathered a son a year ago. He decided to kill her after she began pressuring him for marriage. The others involved in the murder, whom he had promised jobs in his school, are from Palamau,” Singh told reporters.

The SSP explained how Mehta executed his plan. Mehta organised circus passes for Suchitra, who used to stay in the school campus with her two sons from her first husband, Awadesh Mishra, who died in 2000. After they enjoyed the circus, he managed to send her sons back to school but asked her to meet him on the pretext of going to her brother’s house.

“When Suchitra met him, he put her onto an SUV inside which the hired criminals from Palamau were waiting. She was subsequently killed in the car. And while all this was going on, he followed the SUV on another car, a sedan, which we have seized, ”he said.

Singh said the police got suspicious after visiting the spot where Suchitra’s body was found. Several of her personal articles were missing. For instance, her sandals, ear and nose rings weren’t there, but her purse and watch was on her.

“This led us to believe that someone may have committed murder but was trying to make it look like an accident. After visiting the school we came to know about Mehta’s relationship with Suchitra and proceeded to investigate further. We then unveiled the truth,” Singh said.

He explained that the criminals dumped her body on the road beside Gandhi Ashram to show she met with an accident while she was going to her brother’s house. The proximity of the spot to her brother’s residence — hardly 200 metre — made it seem she was on way there.

Besides Mehta, two of the accomplices were also in police custody. They were Sandeep Paswan and Dhramendra Thakur. The others still at large were Raj Nath Singh, Raju Singh, Anuj Singh and Kamlesh, the driver of the SUV in which Suchitra was killed.

Asked about the murder weapon, Singh said it was a heavy object with which she was hit on the back of her head. “However, we have not been able to recover it so far. Efforts are on.”

Mehta, the SSP said, had, however, managed to sell the SUV.

“He sold the vehicle two days ago to a resident of Hatia. But, we have traced it and seized the vehicle.”