SHILLONG: Police have arrested one Melvin Kharkongor (22) and two others for allegedly murdering a worker identified as Ramesh Bara (45) hailing from Tarajan village in Jorhat, Assam at Madanrting Block-F on Sunday night.
Bara’s body was found at the rice godown of Melvin’s grandparents, Meera Kharkongor and Bhagiram Sharma.
The accused have been remanded to police custody for two days by a court here on Monday.
East Khasi Hills Superintendent of Police Claudia A Lyngwa said the prime accused, who stays at Madanrting Block-F, killed the victim by hitting him with some kind of scuttle.
According to the SP, the victim has been working in the rice godown for the past four-and-a-half years.
She said that curiously, the accused has been staying together with the victim in the godown for quite some time.
According to her, the police will ascertain the motive behind the murder.
Lyngwa said the police had initially thought the victim had committed suicide.
“Besides, the accused had tried to mislead the police by setting fire to the godown. The police reached the spot on time and managed to douse the fire,” she said adding that the accused later confessed to the police that he had killed Bara.
It was on Sunday night that police received information that a fire had broken out inside the godown.
Police found the body after dousing the fire and there was suspicion of foul play.
After the arrest of three suspects, police recovered a small hammer, a shovel and two partially-burnt firewood which were suspected to have been used for the commission of the crime.