Post News Network
Puri, April 2: Town police Thursday recovered the decomposed body of a girl from a lodge at Dolmandap street here.
Preliminary investigation suggested the girl was raped before being murdered. Her boyfriend seems to have committed the crime as he is absconding, the police said.
Sources said the girl checked into Rama Shree lodge along with her boyfriend March 31. The couple booked the room for two days and also paid an advance of Rs 800. As per the voter identity card submitted to the lodge, the accused, Ajay Kumar Pradhan, is a native of Tangi in Khurda district. The hotel receptionist, however, did not keep any identity proof of the girl and registered her name as Sumita Baliarsingh.
“The youth locked the room and left the hotel the same evening they checked into the hotel. We opened the room in the presence of police today as foul smell emanated from it. The girl was found in a pool of blood,” lodge manager Pramod Patnaik stated to the police.
“The accused appears to have strangulated the girl with the latter’s scarf and hid the body under the bed in an attempt to hide the evidence,” Patnaik said.
City DSP Pravat Routray said,” The boyfriend of the girl has committed the crime. Whether the girl was raped before murder would be clear once the autopsy report comes out.
The reason behind the murder would be clear only after the accused is arrested, the DSP said. Meanwhile, suspicion ran high on the conduct of the staff of the lodge as they did not check the room even once although the accused had locked it Tuesday.
