Yadav, a UML district committee member, was brutally murdered on December 29 at his village in Haripur-7, while he was on a morning walk. The body of the 65-year-old was found with deep gashes to the head and face and traces of chilli powder in the eyes.
District Police Office Sarlahi was clueless for hours about the perpetrators but a woolen cap found at the spot provided a little bit of hope. When the cap proved to be not that of the deceased, police dog Jack was brought in by its handlers. The dog sniffed at the cap and it was then left to follow a trail.
A squad led by DSP Krishna Bahadur Basnet of Regional Police Headquarters, Hetauda, Dog Section, followed the dog for some 5 km through paddy fields and down narrow paths and wide roads until they reached Jamuniya VDC in the same district.
A vital clue was provided by Jack when it stopped and refused to move on, thus enabling investigators to narrow their search and close in on the suspects.
"We looked at the Call Detail Record (CDR) of the suspects' cell phones and found that one cell phone was switched off from the locality where the dog had stopped," said Sub-Inspector Aswin Thapa, one of the police investigators.
Finally, the owner of the cap was identified as Umesh Yadav, 22, of Kabilashi VDC, who was living at the house of Manju Ray, 35, and her son Rupesh, 18. During the police inspection inside the house, a blood-stained jacket was found hung up. Forensic experts in Kathmandu confirmed that the blood stains were human blood and a DNA test is underway to verify if it belonged to the deceased man.
In the course of the inquiries, Manju Ray claimed that the jacket belonged to Umesh, but her son Rupesh confessed that it actually belonged to him while the cap belonged to Umesh, Sub-Inspector Thapa said. The contradictory statements lent credence to the clues indicated by the sniffer dog, DSP Pramod Bhatta of the police dog training school said.
Following the police investigation, District Court Sarlahi on Wednesday sent all three suspects into judicial custody for further proceedings. However, the three have been claiming that they are innocent, according to police.
Preliminary investigations indicate that the murder was committed out of revenge. Deceased Ram Naresh Yadav had intervened in a property related issue concerning the murder suspects and there was bitterness against him since the last one and half years.
Earlier, villagers and family members of the deceased had claimed that the murder was politically motivated although local politicians dismissed the claim.
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