Murder mystery surrounding headless corpse solved
BHUBANESWAR: The commissionerate police on Thursday solved the mystery of the murder of an unidentified woman, whose decapitated body was found in Chandaka on the outskirts of the city on February 4, with the arrest of two persons. The woman was identified by police as Pushpalata Roul (28), a resident of Dhirkut slum under the Mancheswar police station limits in Bhubaneswar.
The accused were identified as Sanjay Das, and his friend, Srikant Das. Prima facie investigation points to revenge being the motive of the murder.
Police said the deceased’s husband had died some years ago. After his death, she came in contact with Sanjay, who used to stay as a tenant in her house in the Dhirkut slum. They knew each other for the last six years. Subsequently, Sanjay shifted to another place in Phuleswari slum in Bharatpur.
On December 24 last year, Pushpalata married for the second time. She tied the knot with Pritiranjan Pati of Chakeisiani here. However, she reportedly ditched Pati last month and started staying with Sanjay in Phuleswari slum.
“Sanjay, who is a driver, picked up a quarrel with Pushpalata on February 3 over her marriage with Pati and strangled her to death. He then contacted his friend Srikant, who is a mason. Both of them hatched a plan to dispose her body and destroy evidence,” commissioner of police Sudhanshu Sarangi said.
On the intervening night of February 3 and 4, they took the body in Sanjay’s SUV and dumped it on an isolated stretch along the Bharatpur-Chandaka road. They decapitated her head with a knife and threw it in an elephant-proof trench about 2km from the place where they had dumped the body.
“It was a challenge for us to identify the body without the head. We had released sketches and announced Rs 50,000 cash reward for whoever could ascertain her identity. Details were also shared with the police of the neighbouring states. On Tuesday, we received a clue from a source in Dhirakut slum about her identity, following which the mystery started unfolding,” said Sarangi, who lauded his officers, including DCP Uma Shankar Dash, additional DCP R K Paikray and special squad ACP Sanjeev Satpathy for cracking the case. After arresting the accused, the police took them to the crime scene and recovered the severed head from the trench.