Bhubaneswar: A man along with two others were arrested for allegedly killing his minor daughter and her lover in Odisha's Kalahandi district, the police said on Thursday.
The girl's father, Kaneswar Patel, together with the girl's uncle, Debananda Patel, and brother-in-law, Tankadhar Naik, have been taken into arrest.
All the three accused have been forwarded to court.
All three have been accused of killing Jemamani Patel, 20, and Sunil Patel, 22, and then hanging their bodies near the Banjipadar village.
Kalahandi Superintendent of Police Abhilas G. said that after receiving a call on July 9, police recovered the decomposed bodies of Jemamani and Sunil from a graveyard in the village of Banjipadar.
The investigation revealed that Jemamani and Sunil were dating, despite opposition from Jemamani's and Sunil's families due to the fact that they were "distantly" related as niece and uncle.
So, on June 30 they ran away from their homes and were last seen in a dense sugarcane field, according to the police officer.
After getting information about the couple's "hideout", the accused trio rushed to the sugarcane field and strangled them to death.
The police officer claimed that the suspects then transported Jemamani and Sunil to a neighbouring cemetery, where they were hanged to make it appear as though they had committed suicide.
Also, on July 2, the girl's father, Kaneswar Patel, had lodged a missing complaint at a police station to misguide the police, he added.—Inputs from Agencies