Three held on charge of murdering woman

By Janarjan Khatri
Sarlahi, Jan. 16: The Barahathawa Area Police Office, Sarlahi, on Saturday made public three individuals arrested on charges of murdering and burning a woman.
Sabitri Kumari Mahara, 32, of Ward No. 10 in Barahathawa Municipality, was found dead in a sugarcane field on January 7. According to police, half of Mahara’s body had burned.
Organising a press conference, the Office disclosed the trio as 27-year-old Santosh Sah, 27-year-old Mukesh Blon and 22-year-old Rohit Hajara. They all hailed from Ward No. 10 of Harion Rural Municipality.

Sabitri family was about to buy a piece of land through Santosh, a middleman, who was introduced to Sabitri by her father during the process. Sabitri had also provided Rs. 200,000 as advance to Santosh for the same.
Police informed that Sabitri and Santosh started having an extra marital affair despite both being married.

The investigation showed that Santosh decided to kill Sabitri since she had been continuously pressuring him to elope. Her husband is a migrant worker in Qatar.
“Santosh father had recently died. Fed up with the relentless pressure by Sabitri for marriage at such a time, Santosh decided to kill her,” said Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Umashankar Prasad Yadav.

DSP Yadav, who is also the chief of Barahathwa Police, informed that Santosh used the help of Mukesh and Rohit. Santosh bought the duo alcohol and lured them with money to commit the crime.
Sabitri was then called by Santosh on January 1 and took her to the sugarcane filed on a motorcycle.

“Mukesh and Rohit were already dropped in the sugarcane field by Santosh before he brought Sabitri. They killed Sabitri, poured petrol and burned her,” said DSP Yadav.
Sabitri, who had left her house for Birgunj on the pretext for treatment, went missing from January 1 until her body was found a week later.

Police had arrested the trio from their hideouts in different places of the village. The motorcycle (Na 54 Pa 5207) used to take Sabitri has also been seized.
A seven-day judicial custody has been sought from the district court for further investigation, said police.