Jhumpura: An elderly couple was allegedly murdered and their bodies buried near a forest at Kasia under Jumpura block in Keonjhar. Though exact reasons for the double murder are not yet known, police suspect it to be the outcome of a land dispute.
The deceased were identified as Budhhdev Mahakud (60) and his wife Malati Mahakud (55) of Patabila village.
Police exhumed the bodies and sent them for post mortem Thursday. The matter came to the fore after their son Kartik Mahakud filed a complaint at the police station.
Champua SDPO Harihar Pani said that given the peripheral circumstances, the couple was suspected to have been killed over a land dispute.
The police have started an investigation into the matter, he added.
Reports said, the couple had gone to a weekly market near Kakia forest November 8, but they did not return home. Their family members and relatives searched for them, but to no avail.
Some goatherds Wednesday evening found that two bodies were buried in a trench, which was dug out by the forest department for protection of plantation. They intimated the villagers. Kartik, son of the couple, identified the clothes and sleepers of his parents.
A scientific team reached the spot and excavated the bodies in the presence of SDPO Harihar Pani and magistrate and tehsildar Janak Nayak.