Surat: A 40-year-old man accused of murdering the 76-year-old wife of a retired divisional forest officer during a robbery at her Bhubaneswar home was arrested near Karjan in Vadodara district by a joint team of Surat DCB and Vadodara Rural SOG.The accused, Balabhadra Maharana, is from Tangi village in Odisha’s Khurda district. Police arrested him near a hotel on National Highway 48 at Karjan. Investigators said he was allegedly trying to flee towards Delhi when he was intercepted.According to police, the crime took place on Nov 3 at the residence of Kunjalata Nanda (76) in the Laxmisagar police station jurisdiction of Bhubaneswar. Maharana had been working as a caregiver at her house for four months.Police alleged that he took advantage of Kunjalata being alone at home, strangled her and fled with Rs 32,000 in cash and about 60g of gold jewellery.Investigators said Maharana went from Bhubaneswar to Ludhiana before coming to Surat. Acting on a tip-off, the Surat detection of crime branch launched a search. Officers then learnt that he had already left Surat for Vadodara.The Surat DCB then coordinated with Vadodara Rural special operations group and tracked him to a hotel near Karjan on NH-48 on Wednesday.After his arrest, legal procedures were initiated to hand him over to Laxmisagar police in Bhubaneswar for further investigation.
